How Did April Fools’ Day Start

Although April Fools’ day is not an official holiday, many people across countries like India, Brazil, United States, United Kingdom, Italy, France, Greece and many more celebrate it with laughter and joy. People prank one another on this day and the person who gets fooled is called the April Fool.

Despite the fact that millions of people celebrate this day, it still remains a mystery as to how it originated. There are many speculations pertaining to it, out of all which, the most popular is the French one.

In 1564 the French calendar changed its new year from the end of March to the 1st of January. Earlier, France was following the Gregorian calendar which marked the beginning of the year around the time of Easter. When the French authority decided to switch to the Julian calendar, the new year fell on the 1st of January. However, there were still many people who continued to celebrate the new year between the end of March and 1st of April. These people were laughed at by others and accused of failing to keep up with change. Hence, giving them the title of being “April Fools.”

Since then many other theories have come up regarding the origin of April Fools’ Day, but the French calendar reform of the 16th century remains the most relevant.