By Nicky Rossiter

We’re well used to people playing pranks on April 1st, but where did this rather unusual custom begin?

Some people think it started in France in the mid-16th century. Around this time, King Charles IX decided that the new year would start on January 1 instead of the first day of spring.

Some people continued to follow the old idea that the new year started in late March or early April, when spring began. Others called these people fools.

Or does it go even further back to the ancient Romans who celebrated Hilaria on March 25th. This was a lot like April Fools’ Day with parades and jokes to celebrate the end of winter.

In medieval England and France, the Catholic Church held a celebration called the Feast of Fools. Although this took place in early January, some think it led to April Fools’ Day.

During the Feast of Fools, people had parties and wore costumes. The Feast of Fools was banned in the 1400s when it got too wild.

In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the celebration as ‘Fooles holy day’, the first British reference. On 1 April, 1698, several people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to ‘see the Lions washed’.

In the UK, an April Fool prank is sometimes later revealed by shouting ‘April fool!’ at the recipient, who becomes the ‘April fool’. A study in the 1950s, by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, found that in the UK, and in countries whose traditions derived from the UK, this continues to be the practice, with the custom ceasing at noon, after which time it is no longer acceptable to play pranks. Thus a person playing a prank after midday is considered the ‘April fool’ themself.

In Scotland, April Fools’ Day was originally called ‘Huntigowk Day’, a corruption of ‘hunt the gowk’, gowk being Scots for a cuckoo or a foolish person.

Continue reading in this week’s Ireland’s Own