Some holidays honorheroes . Others commemoratereligious issue . April 1stis the rare vacation that celebrates foolishness .
What other vacation is about people play practical jokes on our unsuspecting friends and acquaintances ? When else do we expect masses to forgive us for get them mix-up and embarrassment , just by yelling " April Fools ! "
Let ’s take a look at the potential origins of April Fools ' as a holiday , renowned April Fools ' pranks over the decades and other April Fools ' Day trivia .
A Brief History of April Fools
There ’s some uncertainty about when and whereApril Fools ' Clarence Day , aka All Fools Day ( but not AprilFool’sDay ) , get down , but one common explanation trace this tradition back to sixteenth - one C France .
Up until 1564 , the accepted calendar was the Julian calendar , which observe the beginning of the New Year around April . According to " The Oxford Companion to the class , " King Charles IX then declared that France would start using the Gregorian calendar , which change New Year ’s Day to Jan. 1 .
Not everyone take this shifting of engagement at the same time . Some believed that the date should not be shifted , and it was these the great unwashed who became the butt of some April jokes and were bemock as fools for celebrating the new year on the awry day .
People sent gifts to their ( least ) favorite April Fool and pay for them to bogus parties . Citizens in the rural parts of France were also victim of these put-on . In those mean solar day , newsworthiness traveled slow , and they might not have known about the shifting of dates for months or years .
April Fish?
Today in France , the great unwashed who are gull on April 1 are calledPoisson d’Avril , which literally means the " April Pisces . " The origin of this are also murky . It may have amount from a joke that fishermen used to act prank on each other , literally hook a fish to each other ’s backs .
Nowadays , French kids might record a paper fish or cardboard fish to a schoolmate ’s back without them know it .
Some believe that the Pisces is tied to Jesus Christ , who was often represented as a fish in other Christian times . It could be related to Lent , which leads into April 1 , where Christians traditionally could n’t eat meat but could eat fish .
Others say the fish is have-to doe with to thezodiacsign of Pisces , which is represented by a fish , and falls near April .
Which Other Holidays Are Similar to April Fools' Day?
In ancient Rome , the fete of Hilaria celebrate the refilling of life and the resurrection of the god Attis . Hilaria , in Latin , intend " the cheerful ones . " Today , Hilaria , celebrated on March 25 , is also eff as " Roman Laughing Day , " and some of the celebrations are similar to the hijinks of April Fools ' daylight .
In India , the Holi festival celebrates the arrival of spring in mid - March . Though the ethnic tradition is more about rehabilitation , pleasure and triumph , it shares a alike mischievous spirit as April Fools ' daytime . As a part of that fete , people smear colors and bedevil water on each other .
5 Epic April Fools' Day Pranks Over the Years
Which April Fools ' Day trick blew your mind ?
