It is the first day of the A to Z Challenge. Arlee Bird started this blogathon and what started out as a few hundred bloggers has now reached over a thousand! Join in and hop to the different blogs. Meet new people, expand your knowledge, but most of all have fun!
April Fools’ Day: Origin and History
April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day origin is uncertain. Some have claimed it is a light-hearted day to celebrate the turn of the seasons, while others claim it was the adoption of a new calendar. Pope Gregory XIII ordered the new Gregorian Calendar to replace the Julian Calendar. The New calendar state Jan. 1st as the New Year and not April 1st. However, news traveled slowly in 1582 and there were those who had not heard of the calendar change and continued to celebrate New Years in April. These people were considered the ‘fools’.
An Historian’s Prank
Another explanation of April Fools’ Day is during the reign of Constantine that was provided by Joseph 
Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University. Constantine’s court jesters and fools told him that they could do a better job than he could do in running the empire. Constantine was amused and allowed Kugel, a jester to be king for one day. Sounds like a great explanation… However, Boskin later claimed he made the whole explanation up. What a great April Fools’ Day joke on historians!
April Fools’ Day Today
April Fools’ Day today is looking for things that don’t exist and playing them off as if they do. Playing pranks, and trying to make people believe the ridiculous, are all done in fun.
Share one of your April Fools’ Day pranks…if you dare.
Here’s the list to the other A to Z Challenge participants.
Hi Karen! I’m doing the challenge too. Although I’ve read about the calendar changes I’d forgotten about the ‘fools’ bit! Thanks for the reminder. My blogs are going to based on my Celtic/ Roman researches…so original…I know! Pop in if you’re intrested.
Hi Nancy,
I’m on my way to your blog!
When i was a teenager me and some of my girlfriends made a sponge cake for some boys and we used real sponges! The boys were not amused, we laughed so hard!
Jen,
That’s too funny!
It seems half the women I know on Facebook are pregnant today. Go figure 😉
Now should I believe that? lol
I’m not a big prankster. Somehow making a fool of someone else is not my idea of fun.
Bridge,
Making fool out of someone and hurting their feelings– no. But something just in fun where we both will laugh later about it. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by.
thank you for dropping in! I never knew this historical reason behind april fools day… thank you for sharing
Meena,
Thanks for stopping by, too. 🙂
Liked the history behind this day! 😀
As kids we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves fooling friends and neighbors with silly harmless pranks 🙂
I missed the April Fool’s part too.
hi Karen,
A very fitting post to start off both April and the A to Z challenge with! I admit, I’m not much of an April Fool’s day person, but learning about the history of the day is fun!