As a child, I didn't like pranks, so April Fools' Day always left me cold, and I never succumbed to the general silliness that this day entailed. I was always glad that the 'day' only lasted until noon, and that, after this, the perpetrators of pranks were, themselves, the April Fools. Yes, I know that I must have been a barrel of laughs to be around...
Now as a mature woman, I still hate practical jokes, and I am pleased that I will be on my Easter holidays abroad by the time April 1st comes around. However, from an historical view, it is very interesting to try and find out the origins of this date. As with many rituals and folklore, there does not seem to be one single point of agreement about it, but it is fascinating to see how the custom might have evolved.
Some historians have linked April Fools’ Day to the festival of Hilaria- I thought that was Alec Baldwin’s wife- which was celebrated in ancient Rome at the end of March by those who venerated the cult of Cybele. It entailed people dressing up in disguise and mocking fellow citizens and local dignitaries, and this act possibly goes back even further to an Egyptian custom relating to the stories surrounding Isis, Osiris and Seth. Another speculation is that the custom was linked to the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather- this makes some sense, given the strange weather patterns of the last few weeks…
According to some British cultural historians, April Fools’ Day is associated with the town of Gotham in Nottinghamshire and an event from the 13th century. Legend has it that the notoriously wicked King John decided to purloin some of the land of Gotham for a hunting lodge. Understandably, this was not a popular plan with the good people of the town, so it was decided that they would concoct a plan to deter the king. Therefore, they decided to ‘play the fool’ when the king’s representatives came to town, to convince them that the town was possessed by madmen. Such pranks included trying to drown fish in the pond, and it was said that their antics were enough for the king’s counsellors to decide that the king could not live amongst such lunatics, so they advised him to move elsewhere. Ever since then, according to myth, April Fools’ Day has celebrated their trickery and victory over the corrupt monarch.
Yet another popular theory is that the concept of April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France changed from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian calendar: in the Julian calendar, New Year began around April 1st. Rumour has it that as news did not spread so quickly in those days, some people were slow to get the news or failed to recognise the change and continued to celebrate New Year during the last week of March to 1st April. These people became the butt of jokes and were called April Fools. Some of the pranks played upon these people were to have paper fish put on their backs and to be called poisson d’avril- April Fish- symbolising a young easily caught fish and thus a gullible person.
Whatever the origins, it highlights a need within human nature to debase others, albeit within a safe space of a prank. Just think, if this trait didn’t exist, those of us alive in the 1980s would not have had to endure Game for a Laugh on a Saturday night. Now, there’s a thought…