April Fools’ Day
April Fools’ Day—celebrated on
April 1 each year—has been celebrated for several centuries by different
cultures, though its exact origins remain a mystery. April Fools’ Day
traditions include playing hoaxes or practical jokes on others, often yelling
“April Fools!” at the end to clue in the subject of the April Fools’ Day prank.
While its exact history is shrouded in mystery, the embrace of April Fools’ Day
jokes by the media and major brands has ensured the unofficial holiday’s long
life.
Origins of April Fools' Day Some
historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France
switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by
the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar,
the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1. People who were slow to get the news or
failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and
continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became
the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called “April fools.” These pranks
included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as
“poisson d’avril” (April fish), said to symbolize a young, easily caught fish
and a gullible person.
Hilaria in Ancient Rome Historians
have also linked April Fools’ Day to festivals such as Hilaria (Latin for
joyful), which was celebrated in ancient Rome at the end of March by followers
of the cult of Cybele. It involved people dressing up in disguises and mocking
fellow citizens and even magistrates and was said to be inspired by the
Egyptian legend of Isis, Osiris and Seth.
Vernal Equinox and April
Fools' There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the
vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother
Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.
History of April Fools’ Day April
Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. In Scotland, the
tradition became a two-day event, starting with “hunting the gowk,” in which
people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for
fool) and followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people’s
derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them.
April Fools’ Day Pranks In
modern times, people have gone to great lengths to create elaborate April
Fools’ Day hoaxes. Newspapers, radio and TV stations and websites have
participated in the April 1 tradition of reporting outrageous fictional claims
that have fooled their audiences.
In 1957, the BBC reported that
Swiss farmers were experiencing a record spaghetti crop and showed footage of
people harvesting noodles from trees. In 1985, Sports Illustrated writer George
Plimpton tricked many readers when he ran a made-up article about a rookie
pitcher named Sidd Finch who could throw a fastball over 168 miles per hour.
In 1992, National Public Radio
ran a spot with former President Richard Nixon saying he was running for
president again… only it was an actor, not Nixon, and the segment was all an
April Fools’ Day prank that caught the country by surprise.
In 1996, Taco Bell, the fast-food
restaurant chain, duped people when it announced it had agreed to purchase
Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. In
1998, after Burger King advertised a “Left-Handed Whopper,” scores of clueless
customers requested the fake sandwich. Google notoriously hosts an annual April
Fools’ Day prank that has included everything from “telepathic search” to the
ability to play Pac Man on Google Maps.
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