How April Fools’ Day Began And How It’s Changing

April Fools’ Day is here.

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It’s April Fools’ Day again, time for hi-jinx and pranks. Or maybe not, especially if you’re a corporation. The jury seems to be divided over whether Voltswagen’s most recent April Fools’ gambit was a hit or a miss, though no one can deny that it allowed the electric vehicle also-ran to enter the conversation in an extremely unexpected way. Other industry leaders like Microsoft and Google have decided to sit the day out. Which might make sense. If humor comes from the less powerful telling truth to the powerful, then these corporate giants don’t really fit the bill.

Unlike Halloween, April Fools’ Day has a relatively uncertain derivation. Stories vary from a holiday mentioned in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales in 1392 to a mention of poisson d’avril (April fool, literally “April’s fish”), by French poet Eloy d’Amerval in 1508.

The first certain mention of the holiday doesn’t appear in English until 1686 though the day itself was likely celebrated some years before.

The most reasonable explanation for the origin of the holiday appears to be the story that some countries adopted the Gregorian calendar earlier than others and therefore celebrated the new year on January 1 rather than March 25 under the previous calendar. Under the old calendar, the celebration ended on April 1 after a week of revelry. The story goes that the non-French (and therefore less civilized) people who continued to celebrate the old calendar were fools and therefore called “poisson d’avril” in French vernacular which translates to “April fools” today. 

There are a number of other possible derivations. A Roman festival of Hilaria (no relation to Alec Baldwin’s wife) occurred on March 25 with an ending celebration on April 1 but there seems to be very little link between the celebration of that festival during the Roman empire and the rise of April Fools’ Day in the late Renaissance.

Whatever the derivation, for some reason American and Northern European society appeared to need to celebrate fools as spring began.

Once April Fools’ Day became a part of the folk calendar, North Americans and the British took to it with a passion, giving rise to numerous expressions associated with the day. A “fool’s errand” and “wild goose chase” appear to be among the most popular tasks doled out during April Fools’ in the late 18th century.

The 20th century combined mass communication with more sophisticated pranks and led to some notable April Fools’ Day jokes. In 1957, the BBC aired a story about a plant that grew the then-new dish of “spaghetti” causing viewers to write the broadcaster asking for information about where to find seedlings for the plant. A Swiss news show broke a story of an initiative to clean the Alps. The Swiss were not amused. In 1989, Seattle comedy show Almost Live! (where Bill Nye and Joel McHale got their starts in comedy) broke into its programming with a fake newscast announcing the collapse of the Space Needle. The skit was immediately widely believed and required an on-air apology soon thereafter.

More recently companies like Microsoft and Google have sent out all-hands memos suggesting no participation either officially or unofficially on campus or in social media connected to the companies name. Microsoft marketing chief Chris Capossela said, “data tells us these stunts have limited positive impact and can actually result in unwanted news cycles.”

It wouldn’t be modern-day America if the issue of political correctness and woke culture has not become a part of a formerly innocuous holiday. Whether this new ethos will completely tamp down the desire to prank those near and dear remains to be seen. For a holiday with an uncertain origin and an uncertain future, for now April Fools’ Day continues to endure.