What is the reason/story behind celebrating April Fool's Day?

Question

What is the reason/story behind celebrating April Fool's Day?

Answer 1

April Fools' Day, sometimes called All Fools' Day, is one of the most light hearted days of the year.

Its origins are uncertain.

Some see it as a celebration related to the turn of the seasons, while others believe it stems from the adoption of a new calendar.

New Year's Day Moves

Ancient cultures, including those as varied as the Romans and the Hindus, celebrated New Year's Day on or around April 1. It closely follows the vernal equinox (March 20th or March 21st.) In medieval times, much of Europe celebrated March 25, the Feast of Annunciation, as the beginning of the new year.

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII ordered a new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) to replace the old Julian Calendar. The new calendar called for New Year's Day to be celebrated Jan. 1. That year, France adopted the reformed calendar and shifted New Year's day to Jan. 1. According to a popular explanation, many people either refused to accept the new date, or did not learn about it, and continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1. Other people began to make fun of these traditionalists, sending them on "fool's errands" or trying to trick them into believing something false. Eventually, the practice spread throughout Europe.

Answer 2

Once up on a time(Very long back) people used to celebrate April 1st as a new year.

After some days some king changed to Jan 1st.

But people, who celebrated April 1st as new year still were made fools those days.........

so it is converted to fools day.

Answer 3

Used to be the beginning of the New Year.

When they changed it, people would make fun of people that still celebrated on April 1st.

Would call them "April Fools"

Answer 4

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fool'...

Answer 5

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, though not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, the jokes only last until noon. If you play a trick on someone after this time you are the April Fool.

Recognition--------------------

                   Primarily it is a European custom, but is also celebrated by many in the USA and elsewhere, and it continues to increase in its recognition worldwide. Since Monday 31st March, the custom of April Fool pranks has been banned in Zimbabwe, amidst growing tensions in the country's elections. President Robert Mugabe stated at a party rally that "This country has had enough of British and American customs, and if this is the last change I am able to make to Zimbabwe's proud history, I will rest assured that the struggle against British Imperialism is one step nearer to the finish: I will not be Mr Brown's April Fool!"

Origin--

         The origins of this custom are complex and a matter of much debate. It is likely a relic of the once common festivities held on the vernal equinox, which began on the 25th of March, old New Year's Day, and ended on the 2nd of April.

Though the 1st of April appears to have been observed as a general festival in Great Britain in antiquity, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gowk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April-gowks," the cuckoo being a term of contempt, as it is in many countries.

One of the earliest connections of the day with fools is Chaucer's story the Nun's Priest's Tale (c.1400), which concerns two fools and takes place "thritty dayes and two" from the beginning of March, which is April 1. The significance of this is difficult to determine.

Europe may have derived its April-fooling from the French. French and Dutch references from 1508 and 1539 respectively describe April Fools' Day jokes and the custom of making them on the first of April. France was one of the first nations to make January 1 officially New Year's Day (which was already celebrated by many), by decree of Charles IX. This was in 1564, even before the 1582 adoption of the Gregorian calendar (See Julian start of the year). Thus the New Year's gifts and visits of felicitation which had been the feature of the 1st of April became associated with the first day of January, and those who disliked or did not hear about the change were fair game for those wits who amused themselves by sending mock presents and paying calls of pretended ceremony on the 1st of April. In France the person fooled is known as poisson d'avril (April fish). This has been explained as arising from the fact that in April the sun quits the zodiacal sign of the fish. The French traditionally celebrated this holiday by placing dead fish on the backs of friends. Today, real fish have been replaced with sticky, fish-shaped paper cut-outs that children try to sneak onto the back of their friends' shirts. Candy shops and bakeries also offer fish-shaped sweets for the holiday.

Some Dutch also celebrate the 1st of April for other reasons. In 1572, the Netherlands were ruled by Spain's King Philip II. Roaming the region were Dutch rebels who called themselves Geuzen, after the French "gueux," meaning beggars. On April 1, 1572, the Geuzen seized the small coastal town of Den Briel. This event was also the start of the general civil rising against the Spanish in other cities in the Netherlands. The Duke of Alba, commander of the Spanish army could not prevent the uprising. Bril is the Dutch word for glasses, so on April 1, 1572, "Alba lost his glasses." The Dutch commemorate this with humor on the first of April.[citation needed]

Answer 6

One story is that in the switch from the Julian to Gregorian calander the date of New Years day changed too. As people tried to adjust, some people pull a prank on their more forgetful friends by offering New Years wishes on the old date.

Answer 7

It's a good reason to mess with everyone and get away with it in the name of APRIL FOOL'S!!!!!