April Fools’ Day: Just Joking

April Fools’ Day, which occurs on 1 April in many countries around the world, is a day for jokes and pranks, but nobody knows for sure how it started. However, there are several theories of its origins. One theory connects the day to the joyful ancient Roman festival Hilaria, celebrated on 25 March in honour of Cybele, the Mother of Gods, with games, masquerades, and mockery to welcome the arrival of spring. Other festivals, such as the two-day Hindu Holi, the Persian Sizdah Bedar, and the Jewish Purim, also focus on joy and fun during spring. However, there is no solid evidence linking April Fools’ Day to these so-called ‘renewal festivals’. A common trait of these festivals is that during these events, the social order is suspended: servants or children temporarily challenge the authority of masters, parents and teachers. Afterwards, order is reaffirmed and the stability of society is restored. 

medieval or renaissance

Hypotheses about April Fools’ Day also include links to medieval literature, as some see a glimpse of April Fools’ Day in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1392): in one of the stories, a vain cock is tricked by a fox, and the event seemingly occurs on 1 April.

A very popular theory connects April Fools’ Day to the 16th century, when the Christian world adopted the Gregorian calendar. Before this change, the new year was celebrated around 1 April. When the calendar shifted to make 1 January  the start of the year, people who continued to observe it in April were mocked as April fools. 

The first definite mention of April Fools’ Day comes from a 1561 Flemish poem that describes a nobleman tricking his servant on 1 April, sending him on meaningless tasks. By the 17th century, the tradition was so widely spread that on 1 April serious events were sometimes dated differently to prevent any possible confusion. It seems that the Treaty of Warsaw (1683) had to be backdated to 31 March!

DIFFERENT TRADITIONS

Different countries developed unique traditions for April Fools’ Day. For instance, in Italy and France people pin paper fish on others’ backs while shouting “Pesce d’aprile!”, or “Poisson d’avril!”. The expression is probably linked to fish being plentiful and hungry in the spring, making them easy to catch: the April fish is more gullible than at other times of the year. In Scotland, the day was known as Taily Day, with reference to a pig’s tail, and a “Kick me” sign placed on someone’s back became a common prank. In Ireland, people played practical jokes by sending someone to deliver a note that read “Send the fool further.”

WHAT’S SO FUNNY?

Not everyone loves April Fools’ Day, though. Pranks can feel annoying or even mean, especially if they embarrass someone or go too far. Besides, in the age of the internet, April Fools’ jokes sometimes add to the flood of fake news, leaving people disorientated or misinformed. April Fools' Day has, in fact, swiftly evolved in recent times, with the rise of social media and mass communication amplifying its reach. What was once a tradition of personal pranks has now expanded to large-scale jokes, often shared by media outlets and online platforms, making it a global event where pranks can go viral.