April Fools’ Day! Why?
Where did April Fools’ Day come from?
In a previous post I spoke about how January was added to the calendar because of the Romans, and how the new year moved from March (coinciding with the coming of spring) to January 1st. In the Middle Ages, when the calendar was still a bit more fluid a concept, January 1st was marked as the beginning of the new calendar year, but the New Year was often celebrated at the Spring Equinox, in late March. Often these celebrations would end on the first of April.
In 1582, Pope Gregory issued the Gregorian calendar, as slight modification to the Julian calendar, which after 1500 years, was a few weeks out of sync. The new calendar reemphasized that the new year began on January 1.
Those that continued to celebrate the old new year’s festival at the spring equinox came to be known as “The April Fools.”
Over time many traditions of celebrations based on tricks and hoaxes began to be amalgamated into the single day we know as April Fools Day!
*Disclaimer* Much of the above is based on unverifiable tradition.
*Disclaimer 2* I really hope it is true!
The earliest known reference to April Fools’ Day is in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales which puts a little bit of a damper on the above story. Chaucer’s work came out in 1392, 190 years prior to the Gregorian Calendar. But, this does not mean the refusal of the “April Fools” to stop celebrating the new year at the Equinox did not help codify the day!
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