April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is an informally recognized holiday celebrated each year on the first day of April. The day is characterized by pranks, hoaxes, and/or practical jokes. The celebration of April Fool's Day can be traced as far back as the 14th century. Although it is not a nationally established holiday anywhere in the world, April Fool's Day is currently observed by numerous countries spanning six continents.

The origin of April Fool's Day is a mystery. The holiday is often attributed to a misinterpreted line from the “Nun's Priest's Tale,” one of The Canterbury Tales written by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. First composed in 1392, “Nun's Priest's Tale” is a cautionary fable of hubris and flattery in which a vain rooster by the name of Chaunte-cleer is deceived by a predatory fox. Because of a copying error, early readers interpreted the poem's 375th line to mean “March 32,” or April 1. Modern scholars, however, believe the story's actual setting was May 2, the anniversary of King Richard II's engagement to Anne of Bohemia. Additional scholars point to the 16th-century poets Eloy d'Amerval and Eduard de Dene as the first recorded mentioning of April Fool's Day. In 1508, d'Amerval wrote of a poisson d'avril, meaning “April fool/fish.” In 1539, Dene wrote of an aristocrat who sent his servants on fool's errands on April 1.

Another prominent theory for the origin of April Fool's Day involves the reinstatement of January 1 as New Year's Day. Until the late 1500s, France celebrated the beginning of its new year on March 25, which marked the Archangel Gabriel's visit to the Virgin Mary. In 1564, France reorganized its calendar by moving the start of the year from March 25 to January 1. Other countries throughout Europe followed suit, although some waited until the 18th century to do so. Thus, those who chose not to adopt France's calendar change and continued to celebrate New Year's Day during the week between March 25th and April 1 had jokes played on them. Tricksters would secretly paste paper fish onto their backs, hence the term poisson d'avril. Critics of this theory point to its failure to explain the aforementioned references to April Fool's Day by 16th-century poets d'Amerval and Dene, whose writings date as early as 1508.