April Fool's Day: It's Origin and History

Sending someone on an 'all fool's' errand, or pulling pranks on a friend or relative, being able to tell lies without ridicule or chastisement, and getting people to believe the absolute ridiculous has been the tradition of April 1^st - April Fool's Day for many years. Have you ever asked yourself how and with whom did it all get started?

A widely accepted version as to the origin of April Fool's Day, or in some countries All Fool's Day, stems from Pope Gregory XIII. In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII decided to replace the old version of the Julian calendar with his Gregorian calendar. In this new version of the calendar New Year's Day fell on January 1^st instead of, following the vernal equinox, which was usually around March 21^st in the northern hemisphere. FYI - The vernal equinox is, when in a 24 hour period, night and day are nearly the same in length, and marks the first day of the Spring season. This year it just happens to fall on March 20^th.

Supposedly, because of the fact that it took years for knowledge of the calendar change to spread to all the people; they became known as fools.

Many historians do not accept this version of April Fool's, or All Fool's Day for one basic reason. By 1582, England had been celebrating All Fool's Day for many years, and they did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752.

A history professor at the University of Boston by the name of Joseph Buskin, in a newspaper interview in 1983, gave a rendition of what he thought was the origin of April Fool's, or All Fool's Day.

During the reign of Constantine, the Roman emperor, his court jesters were making fun of him, telling him that they could do a better job of running the empire, than he was doing. Constantine decided to give them a chance to prove it, so he picked one of the jester's by the name of Cudgel, and made him emperor for a day. On that day, Cudgel gave a proclamation that there was to be absolute absurdity. Well, it caught on; and has been an annual event ever since.

This explanation of the April Fool's Day tradition, was brought to the public's attention in an Associated Press article printed by many newspapers in 1983; it was all a joke. This incident never happened. Professor Buskin was having his April Fool's joke.

In my opinion, this April Fool's joke was much kinder than the one Orson Welles did with his War of the World prank on October 30, 1938 for Halloween. The public saw that prank as being cruelly deceptive; but the one told by Professor Buskin, did not frighten people, and it was easy for people to laugh at themselves and say, "Well, I guess joke's on me."

However it was that April Fool's Day saw it's origin is a bit of a mystery, but it is observed throughout the world as a day to play pranks. It can be a lot of fun; and will probably continue to be so, for many years to come.

Resources:
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/sprilfools1.html
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/VernalEquinox.html
Wikipedia - War of the Worlds