How did such FOOLISHNESS come to pass?

So April Fool's Day is tomorrow. I had hoped to write a blog about the history of April Fool's Day a couple days in advance, but I guess this is the best I could do.

Although the origins of how April Fool's Day began is unknown, one theory as to how it originated deals with a change in the calendar. In the year 1582, Pope Gregory XIII changed the standard New Year's Day to January First. Before that year, New Year's Day had been celebrated by most countries on April First, in correspondence to the vernal equinox. This new calendar would be called the Gregorian calendar.

Soon after the Pope changed it, Europe caught on and adapted to this new calendar. However, some people refused to celebrate New Year's on January 1st, in accordance to the new calendar. Either that, or they simply weren't aware of the change since word didn't get around very quickly back then. These people were made fun of for dwelling in the old traditional ways of the past instead of accepting the changes of the future. Pranks were played on these people, who were called fools for not being adaptive. Some pranks included inviting people to parties that didn't exist, also known as sending them on "fool's errands". The victims subjected to these jokes, in France, were called "Poisson d'Avril" meaning April Fish. As an old saying goes, "The naive fish gets caught in the net." Parallel to this, young children would hook paper fish to their classmates' backs as a prank similar to the "Kick me" signs we use today.

If you've seen the Disney movie, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, you may remember a part during the beginning of the movie where they sing a song that goes like this (click the words to go to the website and see the entire song's lyrics):

Once a year we throw a party here in town
Once a year we turn all Paris upside down
Ev'ry man's a king and ev'ry king's a clown
Once again it's Topsy Turvy Day
It's the day the devil in us gets released
It's the day we mock the prig and shock the priest
Ev'rything is topsy turvy at the Feast of Fools!

Site number two below states that the Romans had a holiday similar to All Fool's Day where they would crown a mock king. The site also says that in medieval ages, they would have a festival called the Festus Fatuorum, or the "Feast of Fools". This holiday was a time for people to make fun of the church...

This makes me wonder if maybe any of this took place in the Hellfire caves in England. I saw something similar on Ghost Hunters. Apparently, the Hellfire caves were underneath a church, and people would gather there and mock the church. It is rumored that ritualistic sacrifices and other forms of debauchery were practiced there, but I digress. That is quite off topic. Maybe I'll write about haunted sites in a future blog.

Anyways, there's my blog. I hope it was very informative for you all.

Thanks for listening,
Kaitlyn

For further reading on the history of April Fool's Day, feel free to visit these sites:

1. http://www.april-fools.us/history-april-fools.htm

2. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/aforigin.html

3. http://www.kidzworld.com/article/593-april-fools-day

For some creative April Fool's Day pranks, visit this website.