The history of April Fool’s Day
April 1st, or, as many people around the globe refer to it, is April Fool’s Day. It’s a simple turn of the calendar, the ending of a month, and the beginning of another. Ever wonder how it became a day for jokes and pranks? I did. So, I dug a bit into history and discovered the concept has an interesting, if unclear, past:
Despite its place in history, the origin of April Fool’s Day is unclear. Some historians suggest that it began with the Ancient Roman renewal festival called “Hilaria,” which celebrated the end of the winter equinox and the beginning of Spring. To celebrate, townspeople attended masquerade parties in disguises or in costumes that imitated noblemen. While there are similar holidays in ancient Rome and Britain, the earliest and tidiest historical reference comes in a Flemish poem from 1561 in which a nobleman sends his servant on “fool’s errands” on April 1, according to a history of the holiday written by Stephen Winick of the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center.
The Catholic Church also may have had a hand in bringing April Fools’ Day to the fore earlier in history. A carnival-like “Feast of Fools,” originally held in medieval France and England on Jan. 1, was practiced but was banned by the 15th century, folklorist Jack Santino told The Washington Post. But the holiday continued for hundreds of years, said Santino, who wrote the book “All Around the Year: Holidays and Celebrations in American Life.”
Roughly the same era in France, people who were slow to adopt the change of calendar from the last week of March to January 1, due to the move from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian Calendar, decreed in the Council of Trent, were called “April fools,” and were played tricks on, according to History.com. This is the most widely accepted belief: that the tradition began in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII announced the end of the Julian calendar and the beginning of the Gregorian calendar, moving the start of the year from March to January 1. But not everyone got the memo. Those who failed to recognize the change were subjected to jokes and hijinks. One popular joke involved placing a paper fish on the back of an unsuspecting victim to symbolize an easy catch or gullibility. They were then referred to as the “Poisson d’Avril” or the “April fish”. This practical joke is still carried out across Europe and Canada to this day.
In the 17th Century, the tradition made its way to Britain with the first instance of an April Fool’s joke dating back to 1698. The Dawks’ Newsletter ran an article informing its readers that a select number of people had been invited to the Tower of London to see the “washing of lions”. This was, of course, not true. But Scotland took things further in the 18th Century when April Fool’s Day became a two-day affair.
Celebrations began with “hunting the gowk”, gowk being Scots for a “cuckoo” or “foolish person”. The “gowk” would be asked to deliver a message requesting the recipient’s help. The recipient would open the message to discover the following rhyme: “dinna laugh, dinna smile, hunt the gowk another mile,” which means “don’t laugh, don’t smile, send the fool another mile”. The recipient told the messenger they could only help if the letter was passed on to another person, and the cycle repeated, until the messenger realized they were being pranked. The second day was known as Tailie Day, and it consisted of practical jokes played on a person’s derrière. It’s alleged that the infamous ‘kick me’ sign was born from this tradition.
By the 19th century, April Fools’ Day had become a mainstay of American culture. “The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year,” Mark Twain is credited with saying, according to the Encyclopedia of American Folklore.
Over 400 years later, and April Fool’s Day is still a permanent fixture in our society, with people both carrying out and falling for hoaxes every year. Why not take some inspiration from some of the world’s most memorable jokes? In 1957, the BBC program “Panorama” tricked its viewers into believing spaghetti was grown on trees, and in 1996, Taco Bell announced that it was changing the name of the Liberty Bell to the “Taco Liberty Bell”. Since big brands’ embrace of April Fool’s Day returned last year– after 2020’s year in hibernation due to the COVID shutdown – some have tried to get the jump on the hijinks. It’s the latest twist on a holiday that had its beginnings centuries ago. Most notoriously, Volkswagen revved up a brouhaha last year when the German automaker let it slip three days before April Fools’ Day that the company would be changing its name to “Voltswagen” as a show of its commitment to electric cars. But it turned out to be a poorly played joke.
So, there you have it. Whether you’re a prankster or the victim of a prank, you now know how this odd tradition began.
CREDIT: World Atlas
Credit: How did April Fools’ Day start? Mike Snider, USA TODAY
Fascinating!
Love the history lesson.