April Fool's Day Origins

To learn about the origin of April Fool's Day I checked out some information from Sen. Charles Grassley's “favorite” channel.

He might be pleased to know that the U.S. House of Representatives met for the first time on April 1 1789, according to the History Channel's “This Day in History” segment.

But it became a Fool's Day much earlier. According to some legends, the beginning of the new year was once celebrated in April. Celebrating rebirth and renewal in April seems to make sense. But someone in France switched the calendar in 1563 and decided the new year would begin during the middle of winter on January 1, 1582.

People who continued to celebrate the new year at the end of March (too slow to get the news) became the butt of jokes, History.com said.

The Pope actually recommended the switch to make up for some lost time not accounted for in the old calendar, according to ScienceWorld.

April Fool's day has also been linked to an ancient Roman festival appropriately named “Hilaria”.

But according to Britannica.com, the story linked to the day of “merriment and rejoicing” sounds a lot like Easter.

The day honored Attis a son and lover of Cybele. He mutilated himself, died and was resurrected. Read more about it at the University of Pennsylvania.

The hoax holiday eventually became widespread in 18^th century Britain, according to History.com.

Some of the better modern day hoaxes History.com noted include a 1957 BBC report of record spaghetti crops that people believed, a 1985 Sports Illustrated story about a rookie pitcher Sidd Finch who threw a ball at 168 miles per hour and a 1996 report from Taco Bell that the chain purchased Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and renamed it “Taco Liberty Bell.”

Have you ever been fooled or fooled someone on April 1? Share your best April Fool's Day hoax in the comments.

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