April’s Fool Day! Origin and diffusion of April’s Fool Day 03/17/2023

The initiation of April 1st celebrations does not have a specific origin.

In 1582 the Gregorian calendar was introduced, which is the one we use today, but before New Year’s Day was celebrated between March 25th and Aril 1st. However, not everybody got used to the change and they were called April’s fools, hence its humorous origin.

The tradition of the pranks began in France: many people, being against the change of the calendar or by carelessness, continued to exchange presents between March and April, celebrating the New Year as in the old days.

Some “good fellas” started to give away weird things or empty packages, sometimes with a note with the words poisson d’avril which is April Fool’s in French.

It was at the end of the 16th century when the joke tradition expanded to Germany and England, and later to other European countries.

In Italy the April 1st tradition is pretty recent and it goes back to 1860. It came out from Genoa, port city, and therefore exposed to the coming and going of the people. The tradition first took root among the middle-high class, then it also took hold among the rest of the population.

Today, besides making pranks, the children enjoy drawing, coloring and cutting out little pieces of paper to paste them in their friends, parents or siblings’ backs.

But, why fishing?

As the fish bite the bait, the victims fall for the pranks.

And, in the rest of the world?

Each country has its own way of calling the day of the prank celebration.

In English-speaking countries it is called April Fool’s Day. Fool represents the buffoon from the medieval courts who had to be able to make the nobility laugh to entertain them, sometimes even making a fool out of himself and being a little ridiculous.

In Germany we call it Aprilscherz, the “April prank”.

In the highlands of Scotland, the Day of the Innocents lasts for two days. On the second day called the Taily Day, people enjoy sticking to the back part of the unfortunate ones a sign with the works Kick Me!

In India, on March 31st we remember the Huli festival in which we celebrate spring and we make fun of everybody… not to confuse it with the Holi festival that celebrates the rebirth of life throwing colored powders to the crowd.

And, do you make tricks for April 1st?

Pay attention as I will give you some innocent ideas…