April Fools' Day originated from which country?

April 1 of the annual calendar is known to everyone as April Fools' Day or Lie Day. On this day, people often joke with each other with harmless lies.

April Fools' Day originated from which country?

April Fools' Day is said to have originated from France. Although this day is now commonly celebrated around the world, how it came into being is still a mystery with different theories. Many documents say that April Fools' Day appeared after the decision of Emperor Charles IX of France in the 16th century.

Accordingly, in the past, France's annual festival season started on the first day of April, so the new year also started from this day. In 1582, Emperor Charles IX ordered to change the New Year's date to January 1.

Because the means of communication at that time were still outdated, messengers had to run everywhere to announce it, so for a long time, people in many places did not know about that change. On the other hand, some people do not want to accept it but continue to welcome the new year on April 1 as before.

This conservatism was considered 'silly' and became a funny story that spread throughout France at that time. April 1 is considered to symbolize false information, some people humorously call this 'lying day'. From there, the name 'lie day' appeared.

The concept of Poission d'avril - April Fool's - was first introduced by poet d'Amerval, because April is the month of Pisces with the symbol of two fish entwined together. April is also the time when fish species living in temperate temperature zones are most susceptible to being caught because they often travel alone. Therefore, April Fools became a concept of foolishness.

Pranks on April 1 gradually became a tradition in France and then spread to England and Scotland. Gradually, the British and French brought the custom of 'lying day' to colonial North America. Since then, April Fools' Day has spread widely to become an international festival accepted in many countries around the world.

Another explanation about the origin of April Fool's Day

Another legend says that April Fools' Day 'pranks' originated from the book 'The Canterbury Tales' by English writer Geoffrey Chaucer from 1392.

Accordingly, the wordplay in the story confuses readers. Author Chaucer wanted to talk about 32 days after March - that is, May 2, but readers misunderstood it as March 32 or April 1, to be exact. Since then, April 1 has become a day of pranks, a day when people joke with each other with white lies.

So it can be seen that the exact origin of April Fool's Day is still controversial with many versions. No matter how we understand it, we should just consider this a happy day, everyone is free to joke with each other with gossip or harmless lies, we should not make foolish jokes, ungrateful jokes, cruel jokes, joking too much.

Marvin Fry

Update 01 April 2024