FEATURE
The origins of April Fools’ Day are lost way back in time but like many traditions it probably has a number of historical roots.
There was certainly a Roman festival called Hilaria which took place around the time of the spring equinox. There was also a Medieval ‘Feast of Fools’ although that took place at the beginning of the year.
Throughout history there seems to be a tradition of transgressing boundaries during such celebrations: whether male and female, low class and high class, religious piety and impiety, people have enjoyed straddling society’s boundaries.
The most popular theory about the ‘modern’ April Fools’ Day is that it began to take shape in late 16th century France. At that time, there was a switch to the Gregorian Calendar under Charles IX. Prior to this there had been a New Year’s week (March 25th-April1st), and under the Gregorian system, New Year’s Day fell on January 1st.
As with any change (shhh no-one mention Brexit) there was some resistance, and
many people stubbornly refused to accept the new system, continuing to celebrate New Year on April 1st.
These people were ridiculed and labelled ‘fools’ by the general populace and were often the butt of jokes and pranks. They were known as poisson d’avril, or April fish, possibly because a naïve young fish is easily caught.
Over the years the custom of prank-playing spread to the general population and eventually to Britain, where schoolboy pranks are still the order of the day, so watch out!
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