"Where does April Fools' Day come from? The question is often asked and not usually answered, as the majority of those who participate in April Fools' Day have no idea." -Ava Losee-Unger
Where does April Fools' Day come from? The question is often asked and not usually answered, as the majority of those who participate in April Fools' Day have no idea.
April Fools' Day, as historians predict, dates back to the late 16th century, when France switched from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563 (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-fools-tradition-popularized). Those who hadn’t yet received the news about the change in the calendar, moving the start of the year to January 1st, continued to celebrate April Fools' during the last week of March through April 1st and became the laughing stock of France.
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 hooked” fish and a gullible person. 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 backsides, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them.
Since then, April Fools' Day has been an annual tradition, and has been a world-wide favorite for several hundred years.
Although she didn’t know it’s origin, Shayna Barzell-Weber, an eighth grader who casually participates in the holiday annually, guessed that April Fools' Day came to be because “Someone really dumb and really powerful was probably like, ‘Ohmygod let’s all just make fun of each other today and just bully each other and prank each other’, and then everyone was like hahaha okay,’ and then that’s what happened.” Though a creative backstory, it still didn’t explain everything. I was still looking for answers other than the boring, factual version. There had to be another reason for such a ridiculous holiday.
I asked Grace Triantafyllos, a seventh grader, the same question. Just like Shayna, she had no idea about the origin and replied with, “I think it was probably in the early 1900’s and some person, they were like, ‘I want an excuse to scare the crap out of people.’ That’s my best guess, right there.”
I too, was not expecting that the backstory of April Fools' Day would come to be in France, especially when poisson d’avril sounds much more elegant than the English translation, “April fish.”
Then, after some research, I started to wonder: what is the ultimate prank?
When asked what her dream prank would be, Grace responded with a happy yet devious plan, “You know what I really like? Is how in movies, people will cover, like, entire rooms or cars with colorful Post-It notes. I think that would be really fun, and I don’t even care who I would do it to, I just want to cover, like, someone’s office or their car in Post-It notes.” This light-hearted prank would take a long time to carry out, but to Grace, it would be worth it.
Shayna, though, had a different idea. “I would wanna pull a prank on my parents, and just like my family, that I ran away and I bought a plane ticket or something, and just left, and then be like hahah, just kidding, I pranked you! Got you so good!” If any April Fools' story involves a full-on missing person death scheme, I wouldn’t want any part of it, but Shayna seemed intent that if she had no consequences executing this plan, it would be her go-to.
Both Shayna and Grace felt that April Fools' Day is mostly unnecessary, to which I would agree, but I’m glad to hear that their goals for an ultimate prank are *mostly* harmless.
April Fools' Day, as historians predict, dates back to the late 16th century, when France switched from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar in 1582, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563 (https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/april-fools-tradition-popularized). Those who hadn’t yet received the news about the change in the calendar, moving the start of the year to January 1st, continued to celebrate April Fools' during the last week of March through April 1st and became the laughing stock of France.
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 hooked” fish and a gullible person. 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 backsides, such as pinning fake tails or “kick me” signs on them.
Since then, April Fools' Day has been an annual tradition, and has been a world-wide favorite for several hundred years.
Although she didn’t know it’s origin, Shayna Barzell-Weber, an eighth grader who casually participates in the holiday annually, guessed that April Fools' Day came to be because “Someone really dumb and really powerful was probably like, ‘Ohmygod let’s all just make fun of each other today and just bully each other and prank each other’, and then everyone was like hahaha okay,’ and then that’s what happened.” Though a creative backstory, it still didn’t explain everything. I was still looking for answers other than the boring, factual version. There had to be another reason for such a ridiculous holiday.
I asked Grace Triantafyllos, a seventh grader, the same question. Just like Shayna, she had no idea about the origin and replied with, “I think it was probably in the early 1900’s and some person, they were like, ‘I want an excuse to scare the crap out of people.’ That’s my best guess, right there.”
I too, was not expecting that the backstory of April Fools' Day would come to be in France, especially when poisson d’avril sounds much more elegant than the English translation, “April fish.”
Then, after some research, I started to wonder: what is the ultimate prank?
When asked what her dream prank would be, Grace responded with a happy yet devious plan, “You know what I really like? Is how in movies, people will cover, like, entire rooms or cars with colorful Post-It notes. I think that would be really fun, and I don’t even care who I would do it to, I just want to cover, like, someone’s office or their car in Post-It notes.” This light-hearted prank would take a long time to carry out, but to Grace, it would be worth it.
Shayna, though, had a different idea. “I would wanna pull a prank on my parents, and just like my family, that I ran away and I bought a plane ticket or something, and just left, and then be like hahah, just kidding, I pranked you! Got you so good!” If any April Fools' story involves a full-on missing person death scheme, I wouldn’t want any part of it, but Shayna seemed intent that if she had no consequences executing this plan, it would be her go-to.
Both Shayna and Grace felt that April Fools' Day is mostly unnecessary, to which I would agree, but I’m glad to hear that their goals for an ultimate prank are *mostly* harmless.