By Jeremy D. Wells
We all know what today is. It’s the day you cast an extra skeptical eye towards everything you read in the news – and trust even less of what you see on social media.
But where did April Fool’s Day come from? Well, the roots of the holiday are as murky and untrustworthy as all those tweets about new jobs and breakthrough inventions. One theory says that the date is related to a change in the calendars – which moved Europe from celebrating a spring New Year around the 25th of March to our current date of January 1. The Council of Trent called for this change in 1563, and it was officially adopted in France the following year. But the celebrations of the old New Year – which were a week-long event lasting from March 25 through April 1 – were observed well into the 16th century. Some surmise that those still celebrating the old New Year were the source of “April Fools” as they were foolishly holding onto old customs.
However, there are references to related celebrations and jokes preceding these changes in the mid-1500s.
There is, for instance, a clear reference to the holiday in a 1561 poem by Flemish poet Eduard de Dene – which predates the 1564 adoption of the new calendar. Another reference to “April Fish” (poisson d’Avril in French) as someone who has been fooled by an April Fool’s joke can be traced to 1508. However, some scholars think this described any naïve person, as spawning fish in the spring were easier to catch.
Some others push the first recorded reference for the date back to the end of the 14th century, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Nun’s Priest’s Tale” from the Canterbury Tales. Though there is some debate if the date in question is actually April 1, or May 2, based on the astrological notes in the story.
Then there is the Roman festival of Hilaria, originally an equinox celebration beginning around the same time as the old vernal New Year.
One of the first recorded instances of the date in English was from 1686, when antiquarian John Aubrey mentions a “Fooles Holy Day” that is observed on April 1, “and so it is kept in Germany everywhere.”
Others have noted connections to Saturnalia, Druidic rites, the Feast of Fools carnivals of medieval Europe, and even the Indian festival of Holi.
And some push the origin all the way back to Noah, and a remembrance of his mistake in sending out the dove too early, before the water had all receded, on the first day of April. But that’s not really supported by any Biblical evidence. It really seems to be more of an allegory later tacked on to the “fool’s errands” someone might be sent on as a prank on the holiday.
Wherever it came from, it’s been a fun part of western culture for several hundred years, and it’s all (mostly) a bit of harmless fun. Just be careful you aren’t taken in on the day. But if you are, don’t feel bad. Enjoy a laugh – even if it’s at your own expense – and start thinking of a way to get your prankster back.
You only have 364 days to come up with a good one.