April Fool’s Day – The Theories

April Fool’s Day – everybody likes to play jokes on the first of April, but how many of you know what is really is? How many of you have thought beyond the basics of spattering shaving foam over the person adjacent to you? Admittedly, neither had I until I saw a particular Simpsons episode! There are a handful of theories for April Fool’s Day and hopefully after reading about the two primary theories you’ll decide which you like best.

Mythological Theories;

There are two main mythological attempts to explain April Fool’s Day, the Roman version, and the Christian version.

The Roman theory indicates that the idea of a ‘fool’s errand’ on the 1st of April stems from Proserpina being forced to live in the underworld with Pluto (God of the Dead) after he abducted her, the basis of this theory is that Proserpina’s mother Ceres (Goddess of Harvest and Grain) tried to track her but could only hear the echo of her daughter’s wailing.

The Christian variant coincides with this thesis but implies that the actual ‘fool’s errand’ was the sending of a dove from the Ark by Noah, the water levels had not yet declined and this suggests that sending the dove was a foolish errand!

Calendar Theories;

There are 3 calendar changes which are highlighted, French, British and the Julian calendars.

16th century French calendar – French citizens who continued to celebrate the new year in the week beginning March 25th after it was changed to the 1st of January in 1564, had jokes played on them during that week. Thanks to the tradition of sticking paper fish on the back of ‘fool’ during this time period, the celebration in France has now been consigned with the name ‘April Fish’!

The British calendar change – the earliest testimony of the calendar theory is on the British pedestal (1766). The original custom of this cultural event in Britain is out of synch with the idea of a confusion with the calendar due to the fact that April Fool’s Day was already a tradition. However, it was Britain who originally had the celebrations on the 25th of March in relation to the ‘Feast of Annunciation’, the theory is that this evolved into April Fool’s Day with Britain changing the official celebration date to the 1st of January in 1752.

The Julian Calendar (46 BC) – this calendar was established by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and appointed the 1st of January as the beginning of the year! The European calendar system was now in disorder as countries celebrated the new year at different dates.