April Fools\u2019 Day is celebrated annually on April 1, a day dedicated to jokes, pranks, and playful deception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
April Fools’ Day<\/strong> or April Fool’s Day<\/strong> (rarely called All Fools’ Day<\/strong>[1]<\/a><\/sup>) is an annual custom in many Western countries on the 1st of April<\/a> consisting of practical jokes<\/a>, hoaxes<\/a>, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting “April Fool[s]!” at the recipient. Mass media can be involved with these pranks, which may be revealed as such the following day. The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks upon one’s neighbor has been relatively common in the world historically.[2]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n Origins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Although many theories have been proposed throughout the years, the origin of April Fools’ Day is not exactly known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A disputed association between 1 April and foolishness is in Geoffrey Chaucer<\/a>‘s The Canterbury Tales<\/a><\/em> (1392).[3]<\/a><\/sup> In the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale<\/a>“, a vain cock, Chauntecleer, is tricked by a fox “Since March began, full thirty days and two,”[4]<\/a>[5]<\/a><\/sup> i.e. the 32nd day from 1 March, which is 1 April.[6]<\/a><\/sup> However, it is not clear that Chaucer was referencing 1 April since the text of the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale” also states that the story takes place on the day when the sun is “in the sign of Taurus had y-rune Twenty degrees and one,” which would not be 1 April. Modern scholars believe that there is a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, “Syn March was gon<\/em>“.[7]<\/a><\/sup> If so, the passage would have originally meant 32 days after March ended<\/em>, i.e. 2 May.[8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1508, French poet Eloy d’Amerval<\/a> referred to a poisson d’avril<\/em> (April fool, literally “April’s fish”), possibly the first reference to the celebration in France.[9]<\/a><\/sup> Some historians suggest that April Fools’ originated because, in the Middle Ages, New Year’s Day<\/a> was celebrated on 25 March in most European towns,[10]<\/a><\/sup> with a holiday that in some areas of France, specifically, ended on 1 April,[11]<\/a>[12]<\/a><\/sup> and those who celebrated New Year’s Day on 1 January made fun of those who celebrated on other dates by the invention of April Fools’ Day.[13]<\/a><\/sup> The use of 1 January as New Year’s Day became common in France only in the mid-16th century,[8]<\/a><\/sup> and that date was not adopted officially until 1564, by the Edict of Roussillon<\/a>, as called for during the Council of Trent<\/a> in 1563.[14]<\/a><\/sup> However, there are issues with this theory because there is an unambiguous reference to April Fools’ Day in a 1561 poem by Flemish poet Eduard de Dene of a nobleman who sent his servant on foolish errands on 1 April, predating the change.[8]<\/a><\/sup> April Fools’ Day was also an established tradition in Great Britain before 1 January was established as the start of the calendar year.[15]<\/a>[16]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n An 1857 ticket to “Washing the Lions” at the Tower of London<\/a>. No such event ever took place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1686, John Aubrey<\/a> referred to the celebration as “Fools holy day”, the first British reference. On 1 April 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London<\/a> to “see the Lions washed”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" April Fools\u2019 Day is celebrated annually on April 1, a day dedicated to jokes, pranks, and playful deception. April Fools’ Day or April Fool’s Day (rarely called All Fools’ Day[1]) is an annual custom in many Western countries on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting “April Fool[s]!” at the recipient. Mass media can be involved with these pranks, which may be revealed as such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1052"}],"version-history":[{"count":56,"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4212,"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1052\/revisions\/4212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/croswellpresbyterian.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}