April Fools’ Day

Annually, many people fall victim to pranks and practical jokes on 1 April, when April Fools’ Day is celebrated.

We would be fools to think we knew exactly when this day was first celebrated as it has similarities to various other days filled with fools, tricks and merry-making. Days that share the same foolery as April Fools’ Day include the Indian tradition of Holi which is celebrated on 31 March, and the Roman festival of Hilaria which is celebrated on 25 March.

Some believe the day is celebrated in honour of the trickery Mother Nature plays on us at this time of year with her unpredictable weather.

The earliest known reference to April Fools’ Day is in Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest Tale, written in 1392, but the reference is so vague and possibly doesn’t even occur on 1 April that it leaves doubt as to whether is is actually the first reference or not.

Other scholars point to the reformation of the calendar by Pope Gregory in the 1500s in France, and the Gregorian calendar we use today. The new year would then have occurred in April and not in January as it does now, and the theory is that those who continued to celebrate the new year on 1 April were called Poisson d’Avril (April fish) and pranks would be played on them. France accepted the Gregorian calendar in 1852.

There is a clear and solid reference to April Foolishness in a 1776 British article published in the Gentleman’s Magazine. It makes reference to a custom in the kingdom of making fools of people on the first day of April and addresses the day as being the culmination of an eight-day feast and the beginning of a new year.

To celebrate today, prepare your best pranks and practical jokes. If you need some inspiration, check out the April foolishness that newspapers, television, radio and social media have come up with through the years:

• The Times of London reported in 1992 that Belgium was negotiating to join Holland.

• In 1864, The Evening Star of Islington advertised a display of donkeys at the Agricultural Hall the next day. Those who arrived early soon realised who the donkeys on display really were.

• In 1950, The Progress in Clearfield Pennsylvania published a picture of a UFO flying over the town, claiming to have ‘scooped’ larger publications of the first ever published picture of a real flying saucer.

• In 2008, the BBC presented a documentary on flying penguins.

Use #AprilFools’Day to post on social media.

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