April Fool's Day History

A day of pranks and jokes, 1st April is celebrated world wide as a special occasion that allows youngsters and adults alike, to use all their pranks. Certainly a day of pranksters, April fool's day is celebrated in many countries with some differences in the pranks and jokes. This day is marked by commission of hoaxes and various prank ideas amongst family members, friends and enemies.

Although April fool's day is celebrated in different parts of the country, there are various differences in the way some countries approach to this day. For instance, in some countries, the pranks and jokes are allowed only till noon time and anybody playing a prank after that is called "April Fool". In some other countries, like USA, France and Ireland, the pranks can be played throughout the day! In the US, April fool's day is a joyous affair and lasts all day along. When did this peculiar celebration began? What is the April fool's day history? Answers to these questions have been mentioned here...

Origin of April Fools Day

The exact date and place of April fool's day origin is a very vague idea and no exact data are available about the origin of April fool's day. Various theories have been proposed about the origin of April fool's day and they date back to the 15th century. As far as records go, the main implementation and celebration of April fool's day began after the introduction of Gregorian calendar.

According to various sources, in 1582, Charles IX of France, introduced the reform calendar and hence in the Gregorian calendar, the new year's day was moved from March 25th - April 1(called new year's week) to 1st January. Since in those times, there were hardly any sources of communication, the news of changes in the calendar wasn't spread to many people. Some who knew about changes in Gregorian calendar, did not care to follow it. These people who didn't followed the new calendar system were referred to as "fools".

History Behind April fools Day

April fool's day history has various myths related to it. A possible suggestion of April fool's day is linked to the Canterbury tales in Nun priest's tales that is a compilation of story about two fools, a fox and a chanticeler which took place on 32nd March. In this popular tale by Chaucer, 32nd March was referred to as 2nd May, i.e. 32 days after March. However, readers misunderstood it be first day after end of 31 days of March, i.e 1st April!!. And since then, 1st April was celebrated as April fool's day.

Gradually, April fool's day spread to various countries like Scotland, England and later came into the US. Scotland has a special 2 day celebrations for April fool's day and during the second day one has to play pranks that can last all day long and can be really funny as well as mind-boggling.

Playing pranks on some special day of the year serves the purpose of highlighting the necessary role of humor in our life. After all, laughter is the best medicine for all problems. In Persian culture, people play prank on each other on the 13th day of Persian New Year (Norouz). On 1st or 2nd April, Iranians play pranks on each other, and this day is celebrated as Sizdah Bedar, that is one of the world's oldest prank traditions.

April fool's day history in Scotland, is associated to a very common prank that has been played there for years. Traditionally, in Scotland, "hunt-the-Gowk-day" (Gowk means foolish) is a quite popular name for April fool's day. However, now that phrase is least used in Scotland.

As we can see, April fool's day history is associated with various theories and stories and only few popular ones have been mentioned here. On this day, we surely have a good laugh, when some of our friends are entrapped in our pranks, or in case, we become the victims of some pranks. Either ways, laughing off your troubles on this day is definitely a very enchanting idea. So hope on this April fool's day, you make someone a fool and shout in your loudest voice, "April fool!!" "April fool!!"