Hey there, all you Pranksters!
As opposed to last year’s pranking post in which I relayed the “history” of April Fools’ Day (and then proceeded to flat-out LIE about every bit of it), today I would like to give you an actually ACCURATE account concerning the beginnings of this peculi
ar holiday. All joking aside, this is the honest origin of April Fools’ Day—for serious….
To be perfectly honest, nobody REALLY knows exactly how this day began, however, we have a couple good ideas.
IDEA #1: Some people feel that there is substantial, historical record of April Fools’ Day in Chaucer’s story, ‘The Nun’s Priest’s Tale’ within the classic ‘Canterbury Tales’. It’s postulated by some scholars and historians that this story 
about a fool who is tricked is noted by the narrator to have taken place on April 1.
If this ‘Canterbury Tales’ reference were confirmed, it would be the first-discovered record of an April Fools’ Day, dating back to 1392! However, enthusiastically debated, this theory has mostly been debunked, though some maintain that ‘The Canterbury Tales’ contains the earliest record of April Fools’.
IDEA #2: More likely, April Fools’ Day was born in the 16 Century when Pope Gregory XIII implemented the Gregorian calendar which brought about a radical change that moved the 
first day of the year (which had always been April 1) to the first of JANUARY!
Without the lightning-fast media of our current day, news took a very long time to reach everybody. Those who were unaware continued to celebrate the new year on April 1 and were promptly ridiculed as ‘April Fools’ by others who were hip to the new calendar.
Spawning a celebratory craze the world over, April Fools’ Day has evolved into a lighthearted day of (hopefully harmless) and creative tricks. Check out the informative video below and, as always, thanks for reading!
- John