April Fools’ Day: History, Hoaxes & Ill-Fated Hijinks

Many are convinced that the origins of April Fools' Day go back to ancient Rome’s festival of Hilaria (Latin for joyful). Celebrated by followers of the cult of Cybele, festivities included dressing up in disguises (probably not Groucho glasses, though) and pulling pranks on their unsuspecting fellow Roman citizens. But there was never any hard evidence to link ancient Rome with April Fools’ Day—at least until another link came along.

This one dates to Emperor Constantine and a story about a group of jesters (or fools) who convinced Constantine to make one of them "king for a day." After a jester named "Kugel" won the role, he decreed that the special day would be known as one of jollity, which soon became April Fools’ Day.

The problem with the second theory is that it was all a hoax—an April Fools’ Day prank pulled on an AP reporter by a Boston University professor in 1983. Newspapers that ran the story had to retract it several days later. But it serves as a good lesson: People who take everything they read about April Fools’ Day as fact are fools.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me tw … oh, you know

A more likely origin story for April Fools’ Day dates to 16th-century France, a time when the French made the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar—and the beginning of the year moved from April 1st to January 1st. Some say that it was because many French people thought anyone who either hadn’t heard the news yet or for personal reasons wanted to continue celebrating New Year’s on April 1st looked pretty foolish—and they would play pranks on them, calling them "poisson d’avril," or "April fish."

Fish-shaped confections are popular in France for both poisson d’Avril and Easter.

Poisson d’avrile is still celebrated in France—where, if you’re not careful, you could find yourself with a paper haddock stuck to your back while laughing children point at you and shout "poisson d’avril!!" (like those "kick me" signs we used to try to pin on classmates). So is the centuries-old French tradition of poisson d’avril—which is also celebrated in neighboring Italy and the former French colony of Quebec, Canada—where pulling April Fools’ Day pranks originated? C’est possible … But if it is, it had nothing to do with the Gregorian calendar kerfuffle.

Something sounds fishy about poisson d’avril …

Apparently, references to poisson d’avril have been found that predate the 1564 edict from King Charles IX of France to move the start of the calendar year from the end of March to January 1 (followed by Pope Gregory XIII’s adoption of the Gregorian calendar throughout the entire Christian world in 1582). Because poisson d’avril is mentioned in print as early as 1466, and again in a 1508 poem, people who study these things now theorize that the origins of pulling pranks on April Fools’ Day/poisson d’avril may involve actual fish.

No actual fish were harmed in the creation of these poisson-themed confections.

The thinking goes that the return of spring around April 1st also marks the start of fishing season in France. This was a time of feast or famine for fishermen, who either had no fish (due to waiting for spawning fish to reach legal size) or an overwhelming abundance as the fish all rushed upstream at the same time. Those who give credence to this theory say the prank de jour back then was to hook a herring (not a paper one) on a fisherman’s back and sit back and wait until he noticed—taking special delight when the odor grew stronger by the hour.

Others deny this link to April Fools’ Day traditions, claiming that the early text references to "April fish" may just be a commentary on how fish were especially plentiful and easy to catch during this time of year. They say that without a smoking gun, one cannot pinpoint the origins of April Fools’ Day to poisson d’avril. Some smoked fish perhaps, but no smoking gun to back up this theory.

No more fishing expeditions—the first hard evidence for April Fools’ Day

If the Renaissance Flemish translation can be trusted, a 1561 poem by Eduard De Dene leaves no doubt that a tradition had been established for April 1st tomfoolery. The poem recounts how a nobleman sends his servant out on a series of meaningless errands—but the servant doesn’t fall for it, recognizing that he is being sent on "fool’s errands" because it is April 1st.

Before we go on, let’s give Eduard de Dene some credit here. More than 450 years have passed, yet his little ruse about sending someone off on a wild goose chase is still a classic April Fools’ prank! It was even mentioned in a 1902 newspaper article in the Akron Daily Democrat about some trending April Fools’ Day stunts:

"One of the most popular amusements on April 1 … is the sending of persons on fruitless errands. Unsophisticated persons are sent to the bookstores for a copy of the ‘History of Eve’s Grandmother,’ or to the chemist’s shop for ‘pigeon’s milk’ …"

A century after De Dene’s antics, British antiquarian John Aubrey made the first English reference to the holiday when he jotted down "Foole’s holy day. We observe it on ye first of April," in a 1668 book he was writing on local customs.

It’s almost like while nobody seemed to know the true origin of April Fools’ Day, they were still curious about where it came from. Among the earliest speculation about the holiday’s origin is this little ditty that appeared in an issue of Poor Robin’s Almanack, an English satirical almanac unrelated to "Richard’s," in 1760 …

The First of April some do say
Is set apart for all Fool’s Day
But why the people call it so
Nor I nor they themselves do know

While they were still pinning paper fish on people’s backs in France, April Fools’ Day pranks in the U.S. were becoming more elaborate by the late 19th century. Some of the more popular ones included placing a brick under a hat on a sidewalk, then waiting for someone to come along who couldn’t resist giving the hat a good kick—and stubbing his toe on the brick. Wallets with thin strings tied around them were also left in plain view, and the hidden prankster would yank it away when a passerby tried to grab it. Another one was known as the "smoking coin" because it was a coin that had been heated up by fire or a lit cigar—and whoever picked it up would get a nice burn.

Now we can do better than that, can’t we? Perhaps you’d like to see what some consider among the best April Fools’ Day hoaxes—including a few that went horribly wrong …

10 legendary April Fools’ Day hoaxes

• Shoulda known they were lyin’—Many think the first large-scale April Fools’ Day hoax was in 1698, when Londoners were told to "come out and see the annual ‘washing of the lions’ ceremony at the Tower of London." The prank worked so well, Brits kept repeating it year after year, mostly targeting out of towners. But it’s all rather silly—everyone knows that the only place they wash lions is down by the Thames …
• Even fusilli Jerry was fooled—On April 1st, 1957, the BBC TV show Panorama ran a piece about how there had been "an exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop" in Switzerland that year, due in part to the mild weather and the "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil." The segment was accompanied by footage of people harvesting noodles growing from trees. While an awful lot of Britons were taken in by the prank, it’s doubtful that this would have got pasta too many Italians.
• Baseball fans caught looking—Writer George Plimpton really put one past the readers of Sports Illustrated in their April 1st, 1985, issue. His story was presented as an exposé of a New York Mets pitching prospect being kept under wraps named Siddhartha "Sidd" Finch. By working with Tibetan mystics, Finn could throw a fastball at 168 miles per hour—but he was still deciding between a major league baseball career or learning the French horn. After receiving scores of letters, Sports Illustrated held a press conference saying Finch had lost his throwing ability. Then, a week later, they admitted that it had all been an April Fools gag. Too bad, the Mets really could have used him …
• Déjà vu department—In a 1996 April Fools’ Day prank that may ring a bell in today’s political climate, Taco Bell took out full page newspaper ads announcing it had purchased the Liberty Bell to help alleviate the national debt and would be renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Thousands of people called Taco Bell headquarters and the National Park Service to complain. After owning up to the gag, Taco Bell donated $50,000 for the care of the iconic bell.
• Another fast-food whopper—On April 1, 1998, Burger King took out newspaper ads and issued a press release to announce that it would now offer an alternate version of their classic Whopper carefully engineered to accommodate left-handed diners. Perhaps not surprisingly, Burger King franchises across the country were flooded with orders for their new left-handed Whopper.
• I am not a crook … well, not anymore—Richard Nixon resigned from the presidency in disgrace in 1974. In a famous April Fools’ Day prank in 1992, National Public Radio (NPR) featured an interview with the former president saying he was "throwing his hat back into the ring" in the upcoming election. Nixon impressionist Rich Little went on to say, "I never did anything wrong, and I won’t do it again." Thousands of people in the radio audience believed it—including many who were quite outraged at the thought of another Nixon presidency.
• Dreams can come true—On April 1, 1995, the Irish Times reported that the Walt Disney Corporation had made an arrangement with the Russian government to purchase Lenin’s embalmed remains. They were planning to display the founder of Bolshevism at its Euro Disney theme park—where he would be given "the full Disney treatment" with strobe lights and T-shirt sales.
• This one’s a bit of a stretch—The British tabloid The Sun published an article on April 1st, 2008, saying that the 5 foot, 5 inch French President Nicholas Sarkozy would be undergoing "pioneering stretch surgery" in order to add 7 inches to his height—so that he could be an inch taller than his wife, the model Carla Bruni.
• Flights of fancy—Another successful prank by the BBC took place on April Fools’ Day in 2008, when their documentary unit stunned the TV audience by presenting visual evidence of a "recently discovered colony of flying penguins." Their film showed penguins in the air who they claimed were migrating thousands of miles from the Antarctic to escape the cold and spend some time basking in the topics. The clip utilized clever computer animation—but many realized it was a gag after recognizing the film’s presenter as Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame.
• Is that your stomach rumbling?—On April Fools’ Day, 1980, a Boston television news broadcast reported that Blue Hill, a tiny hillock in Milton, Massachusetts, had begun rumbling and then spewing lava—and a full-blown eruption was imminent. Fake warnings from then-president Jimmy Carter along with footage from Mount St. Helens eruptions were added for realism—too much realism, apparently. While a card at the end of the segment clearly read "April Fool," hundreds of panicked citizens were already flooding law-enforcement phones. But the only casualty that day turned out to be the segment’s producer, Homer Cilley, who was promptly fired for failing to exercise "good news judgment." At least we can appreciate the irony that the surname of the person responsible for one of Boston’s most legendary April Fools’ Day pranks was pronounced "Silly."

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