Happy April Fools Day! Did you “get got?’
Ever wondered where April Fools Day actually came from? The truth is, nobody knows for sure. And in my opinion, that kind of makes it even better.
One popular theory is it was a calendar mix-up. This goes back to the 1500s, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. Before the change, many people celebrated the New Year around the end of March and beginning of April. When the new calendar moved New Year’s Day to January 1st, not everyone got the memo right away. Some people kept celebrating in late March. According to the story, those folks became the target of jokes and were called “April fools.”
Regardless of where the idea came from, it has remained popular throughout the decades.
Some of the most famous April Fools jokes actually came from major media outlets. In 1957, the BBC aired a news segment showing farmers in Switzerland supposedly harvesting spaghetti from trees. People actually called the station asking how they could grow their own “pasta plants”
One last thing about April Fools day – did you know there is a “before noon” rule?
There’s a long-standing tradition that April Fools jokes should only be played before noon. If you prank someone after that, technically you’re the fool. These days most people ignore that rule, especially online, but it’s still a fun little piece of the tradition.
