April fool's day
 

What is the reason and origin of April fool's day? I heard it has been suggested that Europe derived its April-fooling from the French. and the decision to make January 1 officially New Year's Day. This was in 1564, even before the adoption of the Gregorian calendar, but didn't find the connection with jokes. Do you know??

In Peru, as other Spanish-speaking countries, the jokes (until noon) are practiced on December 28, the Day of the Innocents. In this case the name becomes of the innocent children who died because of Herod decree to kill all children (looking for the mesiah).

Here's Wikipedia's take on the origins having to do with April 1 once being the first day of the year in England.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fools

At the bottom they list pranks pulled by the media over the years including

:laugh:

I HATE April Fools Day. Mostly it seems like day to do cruel things to people for a laugh. I hate cruel humor.

That said, NPR does April Fools stories every year on ATC and they are really funny - so that part is ok.

I was never allowed to "celebrate" it or I guess participate is a more appropriate word....because of a horrid experience my mom had when she was little:

My great-grandma (grandpa's dad) was a mean old lady who hated my grandma. Well on April Fool's Day my mom and aunt were at her house - and my great-grandma told my mom that it would be funny if she ran home and told my grandma (her mom) that my aunt got hit by a car and was dead in the road.

So being a kid my mom did what her grandma told her to do....

Naturally my grandma was FREAKED OUT then madder than a poked hornet. No April Fool's day in my family from that year forward.

Deanna, that's just horrible. :(

I get kind of amused with April Fool's (harmless!) jokes, but I'm never witty enough to think of any real good ones of my own. :shrug:

Me either - and when I tried as a kid I was immediately shot down due to the above story.

Though, last year NPR did a story on exploding trees that was just hilarious. They had the cheesiest sound effects, and I do enjoy their April Fools story. Though even with those there are ALWAYS people who call or write pissed off about the story...every year. People just don't like to be made fools I guess.

I still remember falling for that salt instead of sugar trick...:nod:

I don't like humiliating humor either. I don't think I've ever done an AF joke. My roommate got me one year saying our landlord was giving our place to her son. I wanted to die cuz I'd had the worst day ever.