Have you ever stopped to think WHY you're Saran Wrapping a toilet seat on April Fools' Day?
Do you think the first time a man pranked his neighbor everyone reveled in the delight of it so much they decided to make a holiday out of it? Is that where April Fools' Day came from?
Well, it's as good a guess as any because the origins of this high jinx-filled holiday aren't entirely solidified. There are, however, some strong theories of how it came about.
The most popular theory of the holiday actually has Catholic origins: In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII replaced the widely used Julian calendar with the now currently instated Gregorian calendar. This moved the start of the year from April 1st to January 1st.
Those who were late to catch on or refused to acknowledge the change and still celebrated the New Year in April were mocked and teased (humans are the best!). In France, a common prank was throwing paper fish at the springtime New Year's celebrators and calling them poisson d'avril, or April Fish, a term for a gullible person.
Other cultures and societies have springtime celebrations centering around foolishness and joviality. Hilaria was an ancient Roman celebration on the vernal equinox for Cybele, the mother of the gods. People would dress up in costumes and masks, imitating those in higher positions of power.
Sizdah Be-dar, which falls thirteen days after Nowruz, the Persian New Year, is an occasion where families gather outside for picnics and celebrate the return to ordinary life after the New Year. It's a day where laughter is used to overpower the bad omens and thoughts for the upcoming year.
In Hinduism, Holi is the spring festival of colors where crowds welcome the warming weather and longer days by throwing colored dyes on each other. Covered in layers of powdered dyes, people were indistinguishable by class, caste, or gender.
As with many other traditions/holidays, like Santa Claus, Thanksgiving, or Halloween, there doesn't seem to be one exact origin of April Fools' Day, which might be for the best. Why do we need one excuse to be silly?
Fool on, pranksters!
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