History of April Fools Day

        The change of calendar was not announced formally and the communication to other countries about the new calendar traveled slowly. People came to know about this system after many years and the rebellious lot refused to believe that such a change has happened. Hence, these people continued to celebrate New Year on April 1 and were called “fools” by the general public.

        Such individuals were ridiculed constantly for not accepting the change and were sent invitations to attend non-existent ‘New Year parties’. Some of them were also asked to go on “fools’ errands”. Such pranks came to be known later as "poisson d'avril". The literal translation to this phrase in English is “April fish”. This is because a young innocent fish is easily caught in the nets. Another common prank was to hook a fish made out of paper when someone becomes a victim of these pranks.

        This practice continued and evolved over years and spread to other countries like Scotland and Britain. Later, this was introduced in the American colonies too. As the pranks became more and more common across the world, the first of April came to be called as the “fool's day”, with each country celebrating its own version of the day in its own unique manner.

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