Nothing interesting happened this week in history, so I’m officially cancelling the column here on out.
April Fools’!
Well, it’s not April 1 just yet. For that special occasion, we’ll be celebrating with a “Scampus” edition of the paper coming out on Tuesday. But for This Week in History, why not dive into the history of a holiday that I don’t think many people know much about?
What do you think the historical origins of April Fools’ Day are? Is it a religious holiday? Maybe it’s the result of some British myth? Or is it a blend of several cultural trends?
These are pretty difficult questions to tackle even for experienced This Week in History readers. If you don’t know the answer, then you’re such a “poisson d’avril!”
Yeah, I ought to put a paper fish on your back and call you an “April Fish” in French. This very interaction is what some scholars consider to be the origin of this holiday. It’s a strange phenomenon, isn’t it?
Like many of history’s strange proceedings, the trouble begins with the introduction of a new calendar. In 1582, the French were shifting from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. The leap would help correct for leap years and the gradual desynchronization of the Julian calendar, but it would also reset the traditional start of the year.
You see, nature doesn’t exactly have a starting or stopping point for the year. Most associate the chilly December months with finality, while others think of January first as some sort of fresh start. In actuality, the French under the Julian calendar may have been more in tune with the seasons: April 1 was the start of the new year, while the end was still nestled in December.
Of course, January still existed, but the actual start of the new year was celebrated due to both religious occurrences and seasonal changes in April. This honestly seems nice. Spring starts in late March, so by April 1, it really does start to feel like spring has sprung and a new year is here.
So why the “April Fish!” insult? If you were a Frenchman who forgot that in 1582 the calendar switched to the Gregorian and officially set the start of the year to Jan. 1, then your countrymen would find you, plaster a paper fish on your back and probably fart in your general direction.
Now, don’t take any of the above as the concrete origins of April Fools’ Day. There are many other possible historical origins for the holiest of days.
Perhaps you’re from 18th-century Scotland, so why not celebrate with some humor for two days? On day one, you get to send your friends on fake errands, making them do something reductive for no real purpose — except to get a good laugh. Then, on day two, you can celebrate Tailie Day, where you put a sign that says “kick me” on people’s buttocks.
Ah, but every historian knows that all roads — and historical events — lead to Rome. Maybe April Fools’ Day is actually Roman, as they celebrated Hilaria. Besides its top-tier holiday name, you’d get to dress up and mock fellow Romans. What joy.
So, there we go. This little overview was made possible through the work of writers at History.com and Rutgers.edu. I highly recommend you investigate more about April Fools’ Day for one simple reason: People in history laughed.
When you read any book about history, chances are it discusses wars, atrocities, racism, discrimination, chaos or tribulation of some kind. But when you realize that for over 500 years, people have been calling each other “April Fish,” you can start to humanize your ancestors. They would have been rolling over laughing when one of their friends kicked their ass. I’ll see you next week in history.