Most people believe April Fools is just a day for pulling pranks and jokes on one another. Even though the exact origin isn’t known, it has multiple leads as to why it began.
What is April Fool’s day?
April Fools’ Day, celebrated annually on April 1st, is a popular, lighthearted holiday dedicated to playing harmless pranks, tricks, and jokes on friends, family, and colleagues. Often called All Fools’ Day, it is a global tradition where people, media outlets, and brands invent imaginative false stories. Often when a prank is pulled, the person pulling the prank will yell, ‘April fools!’ to show the other person was the target of a joke.
Bella Kraft, a student at Hernando High School, was asked, ‘what do you think April Fool’s day means?’.
“I think April fools day is a day to celebrate spring with jokes and laughs.” States Bella.
When did it begin?
No one knows the specific origin of this day, but according to History, it is said some historians believe the cause of April fools was France switching their Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, which in the Julian calendar made the new year on April first.
“Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1.” States History.
Others also try to compare April fools day to festivals that occurred in ancient Rome and to the vernal equinox, both relating to playing jokes and fooling people.
“It involved people dressing up in disguises and mocking fellow citizens and even magistrates..” Says History about Hilaria, a festival celebrated in ancient Rome.
“There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.” States History.
What are the most common pranks?
Of course, April first calls for pranks and jokes, like taping a ‘kick me’ sign to someone’s back, which is one of the most well known pranks pulled. Another common prank is putting a broken screen video on a TV and acting like you actually broke the TV. A popular prank that has circulated on social media is to tape a large piece of plastic roll to a doorframe and watching someone walk into it and jump back in confusion.
Another student at Hernando High School, Abby Spencer, was asked, ‘what is your favorite prank that you’ve either pulled on seen?’.
”There was this one prank show and they they got this girl that was like terrified of spiders and they made what looks like massive pretend spider, and a human being eaten alive. Which was pretty funny.” Responded Abby.
