April Fools' Day 2023: The first day of April is called April Fools’ Day in most parts of the world, and it has been observed for centuries. Also called All Fools’ Day, the day is usually marked by pranks and practical jokes played on friends, family and acquaintances, or even strangers. It is not known as to how people actually started to observe the day. 


Here are some facts about the fun day.



  1. In ancient Rome, people celebrated a holiday, which was called Hilaria, and it was very similar to All Fools’ Day! They played jokes on each other on this day.

  2. It is widely believed that April Fools’ Day started in 1564, when France switched to a different calendar as Charles IX issued a decree saying the new year would begin on January 1, and not on Easter, which would be around April 1. People who continued to celebrate the day in April would be called ‘April fools’.

  3. Many also suggest that people might have come to observe All Fools Day around this time because of the vernal equinox (March 21), when the weather tends to show sudden changes and people get fooled by it.

  4. In France, the person who gets fooled is called poisson d’avril, which means “April fish”. This could be in reference to a fish who is easily caught. A common custom is seen in France on April 1 when people try to stealthily attach a paper fish to someone’s back.

  5. In Scotland, April Fools’ Day is celebrated over two days. April 1 is known as ‘April Gowk (cuckoo)’, or ‘Gowkie Day’, and also ‘Hunt the Gowk’. The next day is ‘Tailie Day’, when revellers place signs reading “kick me” on their friends’ backs.

  6. According to one theory, which now stands disputed, it was Geoffrey Chaucer’s 1387 work, The Canterbury Tales, which first recorded an association between April 1 and foolishness. 

  7. British folklore has the April Fool’s Day associated with a Gotham event in Nottinghamshire dating back to the 13th century. It is said that it was a tradition then that any road that the king placed his foot upon would become public property. King John once planned to travel through Gotham town, but when the residents heard this they devised a plan to stop his visit since they did not want to part with their land. When the king sent his soldiers to Gotham, they found the place to be full of fools doing mindless activities such as drowning fish in water or caging birds in cages without a roof. The king apparently declared Gotham too foolish for a visit, and April Fools’ Day came to be known as the town’s victory over King John.

  8. A Roman myth says God Pluto abducted Proserpina and took her to the underworld, leaving her mother Ceres to search for her in vain. Many believe this fruitless search gave birth to the tradition of “fool's errands”, which are basically an imaginary or impossible task.

  9. There are two Biblical theories also about fool’s errands. It is believed that the biblical character, Noah, was the first “April Fool” because he sent the dove out by mistake on April 1 to see if the waters had subsided from the face of earth, and to find dry land before that happens. According to another story, Jesus was sent on this day to Herod from Pontius Pilate and back. The saying, "sending a man from Pilate to Herod", literally means sending a person on a fool's errand.

  10. Sometime in the early 1960s, Sweden’s only television channel that would broadcast in black and white announced on the news on April 1 that the viewers could convert their TV sets to display colour reception by just pulling a nylon stocking over the device screen.


Source: Britannica, The History Press, Time And Date