April Fool’s Day 2019: Your idiot-proof guide to origins of ‘harmless pranks’

April Fool’s Day, a day when you have to walk on egg-shells or get off scot-free for the scary prank you pull on your colleagues, friends or families. So, the bigger question is why do we celebrate April Fool’s Day, a day that makes many ‘unalarmed’ dupes end up in the principal’s office or stand with their eyes on the ground on finding that they are ‘fired’?  Like most of the celebrated days, April’s Fool has a very fascinating take to it. It is first believed to be extracted from the 'Father of English literature' Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. It is recorded that the origin of April Fools first has its mention in Chaucer’s book.

April Fools is believed to have been first celebrated around Europe which eventually took its course to other parts of the world, slowly catching and now to the current day, which we consider it a day of harmless pranks and jokes.

Historians believed that before the Gregorian calendar came into existence after Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Day was celebrated around April 1. And when the change of calendar from Julian to Gregorian was initiated, many refused to accept the day and continued following the old calendar, which was the Julian. France was believed to be the first country to accept the new calendar with others following suit. But not all countries did the same. The ones who refused to follow the new calendar were consequently being considered foolish and made fun of by those who accepted the new Gregorian calendar. Hence, the term ‘fools day’ or April Fool’s day.

The old New Year’s Day, April 1 was hence looked forward to as a day for laughter, fun, pranks, and jokes, which we now know as April Fool’s Day.