April Fool’s Day is celebrated every year on April 1st. It is a holiday when people are pranked by friends and family. During the 1st of April, people play practical jokes on one another from morning until noon.

• April Fool’s Day is celebrated every year on 1st April.
• It is a day that people play pranks on their friends and family.
• The true origins of April Fools’ Day is not clear.

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Well, the season keeps spinning and it is back to one of the memorable days of the year – April Fools’ Day. It is a day that you either prank someone or get pranked by someone.

It is a day packed with fun especially for those who feeds off pranks. Don’t take it far though for some pranks can be costly or expensive.

What is April Fool’s Day?

April Fool’s Day is celebrated every year on April 1st. It is a holiday when people are pranked by friends and family. During the 1st of April, people play practical jokes on one another from morning until noon.

The practice has gotten widespread attention in modern age especially with the advent of media and modern online technologies. It is common practice to see some media houses getting involved in April Fools’ Day by publishing fake news or stories and extremely ridiculous content just for amusement.

Where did April Fools’ Day come from?

The true origins of April Fools’ Day is not clear. It is lost to the ages and this makes even striving to solve this problem somehow makes it a fool’s errand.

There are many conspiracy theories which claim to explain the origins of April Fools’ but none appear very convincing. Well, it is well looking into them. Isn’t it? At least it is worth knowing why you are sent on a fool’s errand each year or pranksters take advantage of your ignorance to sell fake news to you 1 out of the 365 days.

1st Conspiracy theory

The first one we will look at is that of the French. There is this conspiracy theory that April Fools’ Day was birthed when the French decreed that New Year’s Day should be observed on 1st January. This was the 1564 Edict of Roussillon. Before that, New Year’s Day was historically obserced on Easter by the Christians.

This change was effected because France switched to the Gregorian calendar from the Julian calendar.

Easter is not an occasion that is transfixed at one particular day. It changes and it is a lunar-based date. However, Easter usually falls in April, so it’s believed that those who adopted this change were called names, particularly, ‘April Fools’.

2nd Conspiracy theory

Another story which has gained fame when it comes to the the origins of the April Fools’ Day is the belief that 1st April was conceived as the fools’ holiday in the late Middle Ages as a result of the works of Geoffrey Chaucer.

This collection was known as the Canterbury Tales where Chaucer included a reference to ’32nd March’ or 1st April in “The Nun’s Priest’s tale.” This is widely believed to be an unintentional error by most experts.

3rd Conspiracy theory

Yet, another theory claims that the practice began in ancient Rome as a festival called Hilaria.

April Fools’ Day typically began on March 25th in medieval Europe. However, when the Catholic church changed the calander in the 16th century to have the new year begin on 1st January, the day of the celebration got shifted to April 1st.

There were those who were believed to have resisted this change and continued to celebrate the the new year on March 25th. These people were reportedly ridiculed by those who had gone along with the new calendar. Those mocked were called Fools and that is believed to have given the occasion its name.

4th Conspiracy theory

Another weird analog is the Holi, a Hindu spring festival celebrated in late March. It is a festival when people could forgive and forget the wrongdoings by hurling colored power on one another. Well, that’s quite strange. Isn’t it?

Most Famous April Fools’ Pranks

There are quite a number of spectacular April Fools’ Day pranks worth noting. Whether these pranks should be termed famous or infamous is left to your own judgement.

(1) BBC’s “Spaghetti Tree” hoax: In the year 1957, barely a month after Ghana gained independence from Britain, the BBC aired a program which showed a group of Swiss farmers harvesting spaghetti from trees. Given its fame and credibility, the story was given a considerable attention and belief until it came to the public’s attention later that it was all a fallacy and that their minds had been sent on a fool’s errand. Surely, the program was aired on the April 1st of the said year.

(2) Google’s “Gmail Paper” service: Google is arguably the biggest digital tech giant in the world. From Gmail, Google Drive, Google Search, Google Keep, Google Chrome, Android and many other softwares and services developed and rendered respectively, there is nothing that Google won’t do.

So when they announced the so-called “Gmail Paper” service on April 1st 2007, the world let down their conscious guard and believed them. The “Gmail Paper” service was supposed to have physical copies of people’s emails printed and sent to them. This was totally ridiculous yet it was believed nonetheless. That’s April Fool’s Day.

(3) Taco Bell’s “Puerto Rico” hoax: Taco Bell, an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell in Downey, California announced on April 1st 1996 that it had sealed a deal to purchase the Liberty Bell – an iconic symbol of American independence, located in Philadelphia – and therefore they would rename it “Taco Libert Bell”. This disclosure caused a public uproar and Taco Bell had to quickly to tell the public that it was only April Fool.

Popular April Fools’ Day Quotes

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.”
– William Shakespeare

“If every fool wore a crown, we should all be kings.”
– Welsh Proverb

“Those who wish to appear wise among fools, among the wise seem foolish.”
– Quintilian

“April Fools gone past, and you’re the biggest fool at last.”
– Proverb

“Our wisdom comes from our experience, and our experience comes from our foolishness.”
– Sacha Guilty

“It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.”
– Anatole France

“Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”
– William Shakespeare

“If it thunders on All Fool’s Day, expect good crops of corn and hay.”
– Anonymous

“The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.”
– Sir Winston Churchill

“A fool flatters himself, a wise man flatters the fool.”
– Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton, English Writer

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