April Fool

Unlike most of the other nonfoolish holidays, the history of April Fool's Day, sometimes called All Fool's Day, is not totally clear. 

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, though not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.

There really wasn't a "first April Fool's Day" that can be pinpointed on the calendar. Some believe it sort of evolved simultaneously in several cultures at the same time, from celebrations involving the first day of spring.  

The commonly accepted origin of April Fool's Day involves changes in the calendar. At one time, the New Year celebration began on March 25 and ended on April 1. However, in 1582, King Charles IX adopted the Gregorian calendar and accepted the beginning of the new year as January 1. Those who refused to acknowledge the new date or simply forgot received foolish gifts and invitations to nonexistent parties. The butt of such a prank was known as a "poisson d'avril" or "April fish."

Pranks performed on April Fool's Day range from the simple, (such as saying, "Your shoe's untied!), to the elaborate. Setting a roommate's alarm clock back an hour is a common gag. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim, "April Fool!"

Practical jokes are a common practice on April Fool's Day. Sometimes, elaborate practical jokes are played on friends or relatives that last the entire day. The news media even gets involved. For instance, a British short film once shown on April Fool's Day was a fairly detailed documentary about "spaghetti farmers" and how they harvest their crop from the spaghetti trees.

April Fool's Day is a "for-fun-only" observance. Nobody is expected to buy gifts or to take their "significant other" out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. It's simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on which one must remain forever vigilant, for he may be the next April Fool!

Few quotes related to April Fool's Day

• It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and leave no doubt. --Mark Twain
  
  
• However big the fool, there is always a bigger fool to admire him. -- Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux
  
  
• [Politicians] never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge. -- Thomas Reed
  
  
• The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with fools. -- Herbert Spencer
  
  
• Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed. -- Mark Twain
  
  
• A man always blames the woman who fools him. In the same way he blames the door he walks into in the dark. --Henry Louis Mencken
  
  
• A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.
  --Douglas Adams
  
  
• I have great faith in fools - self-confidence, my friends call it. --Edgar Allan Poe
  
  
• Suppose the world were only one of God's jokes, would you work any the less to make it a good joke instead of a bad one? --George Bernard Shaw