Searching for the original fool, the origin of April Fools’ Day
April Fools’ Day is one day out of the year when everyone has an excuse to play numerous pranks on their friends as long as the simple phrase, “April Fools” is uttered.
However, most don’t realize that unveiling the root of this great holiday has been just as tricky as the day itself.
The theories surrounding the origin of the holiday are numerous. Among the most popular is the “French Calendar Reform,” according to Hillary Marek, author of “Why is this a Holiday?”
In 1564, French citizens who refused to reform to a calendar change which moved the New Year had jokes played on them.” While that specific change took place over 500 years ago, there are other theories that revolve around different calendar changes, including Britain’s or the Julian Calendar, but these explanations seem to have more holes than that of the French Calendar theory.
Another possible explanation dates back to Roman mythology. According to Marek, a celebration for the goddess of the harvest took place around April 1st, the story behind it being Ceres’ fruitless search for her daughter, which was equivalent to a fool’s errand.
I also discovered the “first” reference to April Fools’ Day dates back to 1392 in Geoffrey Chaucer’s revolutionary “The Canterbury Tales”. Within the twisted turns of the story, the adventure of “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale” possibly reveals a secret knowing of April Fools’ Day. While the ever so “valiant” rooster, Chanteclere, outsmarts his natural enemy, the fox, Chaucer provides a line that questions the origins of April Fools’ Day: “When that the monthe in which the world bigan. That highte March, whan God first maked man, Was complet, and passed were also. Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two”.
In case you don’t quite understand Middle English, Chaucer talks about the end of March being thirty-two days later than its beginning, which would place the date at April 1.
It is ironic that a tale of tricks would mention April 1, but most scholars do not believe it is a reference to April Fools’ Day (joke’s on me, I read that Middle English for naught). I’m going to keep my fantasy that it is a reference to April Fools’ Day for the sake of my sanity. You, dear reader, are free to make your own decision.
April Fools’ Day is the best day of the year, in my opinion. It’s a day to forget about the seriousness of school or life in general and get away with any pranks you have dreamt of enacting — maybe a little fun revenge on a friend — with a legitimate excuse! I take full advantage of pulling pranks. For example, I’ve frozen a friend’s clothes and thrown a pan of whip cream at another.
The day of tricks is upon us; take advantage of the opportunity presented. Run through the hallways as a superhero, make the sink spray when someone turns it on, but remember, be funny, not mean and afterwards be prepared to help clean up the mess.
