April 1st Facts

Every day is suitable for having some fun but one specific date is entirely dedicated to joking, pranking, hoaxing, partying and everything related to fun. This is of course April 1st, the day when life should be treated as bright and light as possible.

All over the world different weird traditions related to the first day in April were developed, from false news in media to very personal pranks, but it is pretty obvious almost everybody likes the idea of lighthearted holiday at the beginning of spring. If you think this is relatively new celebration, you are wrong. There are indices it is at least few thousand years old.

In my opinion, the reason for this celebration is quite simple. Although we don't have the same sense of humor, we all share love for a good laugh to some degree. After all humour is one of the most human characteristics.

(All used images are public domain with the exception of the book from Amazon, which is copyrighted material of respected owners. Resources were clker.com and pixabay.com, both sites being dedicated to public domain graphics.)

While nobody knows for sure, it seems the term April's Fool originated in France (1583). It is related to the switch to Gregorian calendar, when the beginning of the new year moved from first April to first January. This fact should be taken with a pinch of salt, because first known mentioning of April Fish (literarly translated) is more than one hundreed years older - it was French poet Eloy d'Amerval, who used it in one of his works in 1508.

Like every novelty the official change of beginning of calendasr year was not welcomed at everybody, so some people persisted at celebrating on the same date as always. These were apparently labeled as April Fools and first targets of joking which soon became tradition. It's not a national holiday in any of the countries, but many people all over the world spend noticeable amount of time and money to make the most of the day.

Like many today's celebrations this one can be traced to Roman festivals, in this case the festival of Hilaria which was held in honor of Cybele, the mother of gods. Details of this celebrations are not clear, we can only say everybody enjoyed the first day of the year when day was longer than night. Different games, including masquarades, were involved as well.

Who said you can't have fun at work? With all the pranks explained in this compilation, you'll get hours of fun for many years. Just don't exaggerate!

By the way ... What is Pigasus Award?

It is annual award presented on the first day of April dedicated to the best paranormal or psychic fraud in last year. It is presented by James Randi, retired magician and scientific sceptic who is willing to pay one million dollars to everybody who can prove any kind of paranormal activity in lab conditions (no, this is not a joke).

While everybody has his own opinion on jokes, tricks and pranks, many still try to compile lists of best April Fool's related events of all times. Here is one of this attempts. It's fun, although not necessary practical, so beware ...

Watch, learn and be careful to not repeat the mistakes. Rather make your own.

Most English speaking countries celebrate April Fool's Day only till noon. If somebody makes a prank in the second half of the day, he becomes an April's Fool.

In Scotland the same holiday is celebrated two days in a row. It is called 'Hunting the dawk'. Second day is entirely devoted to backs and it is where the sign 'kick me' probably originate from.

Every country has its own variation of pranks on the first day of the fourth month. In Portugal they throw flour to each other, in Poland they spray water and in Belgium children try to lock their parents and teachers until they give them sweets.

France is very special story because many people believe the tradition of tricking each other actuaally began here. I will not go into details with changes of calendar and people who celebrated New Year on January mocking people who persisted on partying on April, but it seems the later were 'punished' for their stubborness by having stuck fish (some resources claim these were real, not paper ones, like today) on their backs. Whatever being the true the tricks are similar to tricks in other countries, but the fooled people is still called April Fish and paper fish is still a signiture of this unofficial holiday.

In Spain and some countries in Latin America, the day, dedicated to tricks and pranks, is December 28th, when Holy Innocence is celebrated. In Sweden it is May 1st.

Newspapers loved this fun celebration from the very beginnings. Press in every country where it is recognized dedicate at least few articles to pranks and some of these became a tradition on its own. Sometimes papers offer rewards to readers who find pranks, hidden among the real news and sometimes papers invite readers to contribute their own reportages.

In New York since 1986 press covers everything related with traditional New York City April Fool's Parade, event which never existed. It offers a lot of opportunities to imaginative journalists and provides good laugh to the audience. This is probably the essence of this unusual celebration.

Here are my major resources for all the fun trivia. You can certainly find even more if you try.