April Fools' Day (sometimes called All Fools' Day) is celebrated every year on

April 1 by playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes. The jokes and their victims
are called April fools. People playing April Fool jokes expose their prank by
shouting April Fool. Some newspapers, magazines, and other published media
report fake stories, which are usually explained the next day or below the news
section in small letters. Although popular since the 19th century, the day is not
a public holiday in any country.
Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1392) contains the first recorded
association between April 1 and foolishness.
Contents
[hide]
1Origins

2Long standing customs

o 2.1United Kingdom

o 2.2Ireland

o 2.3Poland

o 2.4Nordic countries

o 2.5April fish

o 2.6India

o 2.7Romania

3April Fools' Day pranks

4Comparable prank days

5Reception
6Cultural references

7See also

8References

9Further reading

10External links

Origins
An 1857 ticket to "Washing the Lions" at the Tower of London in London. No such
event ever took place.
The custom of setting aside a day for the playing of harmless pranks upon one's
neighbor is recognized everywhere. [1][dubious discuss]Some precursors of April Fools' Day
include the Roman festival of Hilaria.
Bertha R. McDonald, in Harper's Weekly explicated an origin of April Fools' Day,
stating that some "authorities gravely back with it to the time of Noah and the ark,
and the London Public Advertiser of March 13, 1769, prints the following paragraph
concerning this theory: 'The mistake of Noah sending the dove out of the ark before
the water had abated, on the first day of April, and to perpetuate the memory of
this deliverance it was thought proper, whoever forgot so remarkable a
circumstance, to punish them by sending them upon some sleeveless errand similar
to that ineffectual message upon which the bird was sent by the patriarch'." [1]
In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392), the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is set Syn March
bigan thritty dayes and two.[2] Modern scholars believe that there is a copying error
in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, Syn March was gon.
[3]
Thus the passage originally meant 32 days after March, i.e. 2 May, [4] the
anniversary of the engagement of King Richard II of England to Anne of Bohemia,
which took place in 1381. Readers apparently misunderstood this line to mean "32
March", i.e. April 1.[citation needed][5] In Chaucer's tale, the vain cock Chauntecleer is
tricked by a fox.
In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a poisson davril (April fool, literally
"Fish of April"), a possible reference to the holiday. [6] In 1539, Flemish poet Eduard
de Dene wrote of a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on April 1.
[4]
In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the holiday as "Fooles holy day", the first British
reference.[4] On April 1, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of
London to "see the Lions washed".[4]
In the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on March 25 in most European
towns.[7] In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on
April 1.[8][9]Some writers suggest that April Fools' originated because those who
celebrated on January 1 made fun of those who celebrated on other dates. [8] The
use of January 1 as New Year's Day was common in France by the mid-16th century,
[4]
and this date was adopted officially in 1564 by the Edict of Roussillon.
In the Netherlands, the origin of April Fools' Day is often attributed to the Dutch
victory at Brielle in 1572, where the Spanish Duke lvarez de Toledo was defeated.
"Op 1 april verloor Alva zijn bril." is a Dutch proverb, which can be translated to: "On
the first of April, Alva lost his glasses." In this case, the glasses ("bril" in Dutch)
serve as a metaphor for Brielle. This theory, however, provides no explanation for
the international celebration of April Fools' Day.
Long standing customs

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United Kingdom
In the UK, an April Fool joke is revealed by shouting "April fool!" at the recipient,
who becomes the "April fool". A study in the 1950s, by folklorists Iona and Peter
Opie, found that in the UK, and in countries whose traditions derived from the UK,
the joking ceased at midday. [10] A person playing a joke after midday is the "April
fool" themselves.[11]
In Scotland, April Fools' Day was traditionally called 'Huntigowk Day', [10] although
this name has fallen into disuse.[citation needed] The name is a corruption of 'Hunt the
Gowk', "gowk" being Scots for a cuckoo or a foolish person; alternative terms
in Gaelic would be L na Gocaireachd 'gowking day' or L Ruith na Cuthaige 'the
day of running the cuckoo'. The traditional prank is to ask someone to deliver a
sealed message that supposedly requests help of some sort. In fact, the message
reads "Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile." The recipient, upon
reading it, will explain he can only help if he first contacts another person, and
sends the victim to this next person with an identical message, with the same
result.[10]
In England a "fool" is known by different names around the country, including a
"noodle", "gob", "gobby" or "noddy".[12]
Ireland
In Ireland it was traditional to entrust the victim with an "important letter" to be
given to a named person. That person would then ask the victim to take it to
someone else, and so on. The letter when finally opened contained the words "send
the fool further".[13]
Poland
In Poland, prima aprilis ("1 April" in Latin) is a day in which many jokes are told;
various hoaxes are prepared by people, media (which sometimes cooperate to make
the "information" more credible) and even public institutions. Serious activities are
usually avoided. This conviction is so strong that the anti-Turkish alliance
with Leopold I signed on April 1, 1683, was backdated to March 31. [14]
Nordic countries
Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians and Swedes celebrate April Fools' Day
(aprilsnar in Danish; aprillipiv in Finnish). Most news media outlets will publish
exactly one false story on April 1; for newspapers this will typically be a first-page
article but not the top headline.[15]
April fish
In Italy, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, and French-speaking areas of
Switzerland and Canada, April 1 tradition is often known as "April fish" (poissons
d'avril in French, aprilvis in Dutch or pesce d'aprile in Italian). This includes
attempting to attach a paper fish to the victim's back without being noticed. Such
fish feature prominently on many late 19th- to early 20th-century French April Fools'
Day postcards. Many newspapers also spread a false story on April Fools' Day, and a
subtle reference to a fish is sometimes given as a clue. [citation needed]