April Fool's Day

April Fool's Day is a strange festival celebrated in many Western countries. We all enjoy a good gag, whether as perpetrator, victim or just observer watching news reports. April Fool's Day is an established part of our year. Yet how many of us stop to ask just where this strange custom originated?

Unfortunately the origin of April Fool's Day is unclear. There is little documentary evidence. April Fool's Day appears to have reached britain only in the 18th or 19th century with the first known reference in English being in 1686:

" Fooles holy day. We observe it on ye first of April. And so it is kept in Germany everywhere"
(John Aubrey)

The most popular theory is that the curstom originated as a result of the switch to the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century. For more information see the origin of April Fool's Day.

Initially April Fool's were simple practical jokes played on individuals. However the rise of mass media, in particular the Internet, has led to ever larger hoaxes and gags.

The growing sophistication of the people has lead to an "arms race" of sorts as jokers try ever more devious methods to hoodwink an increasingly cynical populace. One common weapon of the hoaxers is to publish an obvious April Fool in the hope that once people spot this they will miss the subtler hoax elsewhere.

Readers, viewers and surfers should be even more sceptical than usual of anything they are told on April 1st!