History of April Fools Day
Don’t believe everything you read online, especially today. April 1 is commonly known as "April Fools Day" and there is no shortage of pranks to be found, especially on the intertubes.
Thinking about today got me thinking, how did April Fools Day come about? What is the history of this strange "holiday"? I decided to scour the internet to find out.
My first stop took me to an obvious place when searching for information – Wikipedia. I came across this entry that gives a vague and convoluted history of this day, much of which is pure speculation:
In many pre-Christian cultures May Day (May 1) was celebrated as the first day of summer, and signalled the start of the spring planting season. An April Fool was someone who did this prematurely. Another origin is that April 1 was counted the first day of the year in France. When King Charles IX changed that to January 1, some people stayed with April 1. Those who did were called "April Fools" and were taunted by their neighbors.
Not being a historian, I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the quoted Wikipedia article, and like everything I read on Wikipedia, I take it with a grain of salt. However, I did come across this site, which also talks about April Fools Day starting when King Charles IX changed the first day of the year to January 1.
And then I came this article from the Examiner, which seems to back up my previous two sources as being the most popular theory about the origins of April Fools Day. Whatever the history of this day actually is, just don’t let yourself get pranked!
Have you ever played a good April Fools Day prank on someone? Or has someone played a prank on you? Leave a comment below and give us the juicy details (names can be changed to protect the innocent).
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