Year after year, the first of April rolls around, and people have a blast pulling pranks on one another. What a concept for a holiday, but why do we do this?? How did April Fools' Day come to be??
No one is absolutely certain how this holiday got started, but there is one theory that is April first, the spring equinox, used to be the first of the year, back in 45 BC Julius Caesar created a calendar and April 1st was the first day of the year, on the Julian Calendar. Then in 1592, we switched to using the Gregorian calendar, named after Pope Gregory the 8th, who moved the new year to January 1st. After the change, anyone who still celebrated it on April 1st was seen as a fool, and they were made fun of and pranked.
That seem like the most plausible theory, however historians have some other interesting theories as well. Of course, my favorite is that it's connected to Mother Nature and the spring equinox. They called it April Fools' Day because she tricks us with the constant changing weather during spring time.
The tradition could have also started in ancient Rome, with the Hilaria festival. People dressed up in costume and teased other citizens; this may have been inspired by an Egyptian legend. Then, fast-forward to the 18th century, Britain caught the April Fools's Day bug. Scotland even had a 2-day event, that they kicked off on the first day with the "hunting the gowk," sending people on fake errands. The second day, or Tailie Day, people got tails or signs saying "kick me" pinned to their butts.
Today, people have graduated from kick me signs to some pretty extravagant pranks. Personally, I'm not big on pranks, I don't mind silly harmless ones, but some people go too far, so make sure you have a safe and hilarious Aprils fools!
My best tip for pulling pranks, know your audience, because you don't want to wind up like this guy. What is the squeal?? Haha! Also enjoy this video compilation on past pranks!