Page 22 - Royton Connected - April 2018

April Fools
The origins of April Fools’ Day seems to be lost in time but like many traditions probably has a number of historical roots. There was certainly a Roman festival called hilaria around that time of year, to celebrate the vernal equinox.
The most popular theory about ‘modern’ April Fools’ Day is that it began to take shape in late 16th century France. At that time, there was a switch to the Gregorian Calendar under Charles IX. Prior to this there had been a New Year’s week (March 25th-April1st) , and under the Gregorian system, New year’s Day fell on January 1st.
As with any change there was some resistance, and many people stubbornly refused to accept the new system, continuing to celebrate New Year on April 1st.
These people were ridiculed and labelled ‘fools’ by the general populace and were often the butt of jokes and pranks. They were known as poisson d’avril, or April fish, possibly because a naïve young fish is easily caught.
Over the years the custom of prank-playing spread to the general population and eventually to Britain, where schoolboy pranks are still the order of the day. Watch out!
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