April Fools' Day [History]

In this episode we explore the mysterious origins and cultural significance of April Fools' Day, delving into various theories and historical practices associated with the holiday. We contrast these with modern-day pranks and how April Fools' Day is celebrated around the world, highlighting the lack of a definitive origin story but embracing the whimsy and unpredictability that define the day. We also give our top 5 favourite April Fools' Day hoaxes throughout history, and things get really weird.

If you have an idea for an episode, or just want to say hello, please send it over to loredtodeath@gmail.com or at one of the social media links below!

Podcast & Social Media Links:
linktr.ee/loredtodeath

Transcript

Hey there, welcome to the Lore’d to Death podcast– a deep dive into the lore of your favourite games, movies, shows, and more! My name is Brett, and today I want to talk about something that might be a bit obscure. I’m not sure if many people have really heard of this phenomenon, but I wanted to take a minute to talk about April Fools’ Day. This is when, on the first of April, folks tend to channel their inner Loki and create a variety of hoaxes, pranks, and ruses on their fellow people.

While this is a worldwide phenomenon, I don’t think I’ve ever really experienced any pranks on behalf of April Fools’ Day. And yet, I still feel on edge on this day every year, like something terrible could happen. I could sit down at my office and my chair could be full of tacks. My desk could be covered in post-it notes. My cat could be replaced with a hyper-realistic cake. Anything could happen, and yet it never does. I always wondered what the cultural significance of April Fools’ day was when I had never actually properly experienced it that I can remember. So now that I’ve made a habit of writing an essay every couple of weeks, I think it’s the right time to buckle down and get to the bottom of this mystery, if there even is a bottom.

I’m not going to lie, there’s a ton of conflicting information out there on the history of April Fools’ Day. It’s hard to tell which is right and which is a hoax, which I guess goes right in-line with the theme of the day. For my perfectionist brain, that makes it exceedingly difficult to write this episode because I don’t know who to trust. Again, I guess maybe that’s the point?

Some seem to think that the modern custom originated in France in the year 1564 with the Edict of Roussillon. This edict was brought about when King Charles IX of France was travelling around his kingdom, visiting various territories as per his kingly duties. Of course, during this time, the most predominant form of worship was Christianity. And so the king realised that each diocese was doing things a little bit differently in regards to new years’ celebrations. Depending on the diocese, some would start their new year at Christmas, like in Lyon, for example, while others would start their new year on Holy Saturday which was the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Monday somewhere between the end of March and the beginning of April depending on the year while some just stuck with March 1st or March 25th as their new year.

The first two make some semblance of sense, being surrounded by arguably the two most important dates for Christianity– Christmas and Easter. Both of those being very holy occasions, I could see why they would want to start a new year on those days in accordance with their worship. March 1st and 25th, though, were definitely lesser holy days and so I’m not sure exactly why they would have been chosen to be the mark of a new year. March 1st is Saint David’s day which marks Saint David’s death in 589 AD. March 25th is a bit of a mixed bag. It’s the day of the Feast of Annunciation, which is the day where the archangel Gabriel visited the virgin mother Mary to tell her that she was going to be the mother of Jesus Christ, the son of God. On the flip side of that, this is also the day that the Christian Antiquity held as the actual day of Jesus’ death. So I guess I could see why they could maybe choose March 25th.

Regardless of their reasoning, it was all in-line with significant dates for Christians is what I’m getting at. It looks like there was one, maybe two territories that held January 1st as their new year, which was in the vast minority. Seeing all of these different dates, King Charles IX decided that he was going to standardise the new year and pick one day in which France would celebrate the new year. And so he chose January 1st and the edict was in effect on August 9th, 1564, and the first standardised new years’ celebration took place on January 1st, 1565. I thought that maybe King Charles chose January 1st because maybe that’s how it was done where he was born, but it doesn’t seem like that was the case. From what I can tell, he was born in a northern province but the only ones to celebrate new years’ on January 1st were those in the south.

Alright, that was a major detour, so let’s get back on track. King Charles IX standardised the new year, but what does that have to do with April Fools’ Day? Because many people celebrated their new year around Easter before the edict of Roussillon, some people still clung to this day as their new year since that’s all that they had known. I think that’s entirely reasonable. Imagine if they told us that they were changing the new year date today– would you change your ways or would you still celebrate on January 1st? Because Easter is a lunar holiday, which means that it changes dates every year, and fell somewhere between the end of March and the beginning of April, people who still celebrated their new year during Easter were referred to as “April Fools” for clinging to the old ways.

Others speculate that the tradition actually goes back as far as ancient Rome and the festival known as Hilaria. This was a celebration of the March Equinox which honoured Cybele who was a national deity that was similar to Gaia of Greek mythology. However, it seems that Hilaria was a title given to celebrate basically anything and wasn’t specific to the March equinox celebration, and so this specific date was known as Hilaria Matris Deum. If you know about the March Equinox, then you know why this is a significant date. If you’re not familiar, this is the date in which it was the first day of the year where the day is longer than the night in a transition from winter to spring– hence why they were celebrating Cybele, the goddess of the earth and mother of gods.

This was a great festival with plenty of games and other charades such as masquerades where everyone, in disguise, would be able to imitate whomever they pleased (even magistrates, which would have been blasphemous during any other occasion). It’s hard to say when this festival originated, though. The first writings that I can find about it were from Sallustius in the 4th century AD who wrote an account of the multi-day structure of the festival:

“And at first we ourselves, having fallen from heaven and living with the nymph, are in despondency, and abstain from corn and all rich and unclean food, for both are hostile to the soul. Then comes the cutting of the tree and the fast, as though we also were cutting off the further process of generation. After that the feeding on milk, as though we were being born again; after which come rejoicings and garlands and, as it were, a return up to the Gods."

Anyways, because of the joyous nature of the festival and the fact that it was around the end of March leads some to believe that this was the start of April Fools’ Day, although there’s really no correlation other than sort of the date and the fact that they put on masquerades where people tended to mess with each other a little bit. I think that it’s a bit of a stretch, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

Another really weird one is a disputed association with April 1st being a “fools’ day” is from Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”, which is a collection of 24 short stories written between 1387 and 1400. In one of these stories called “Nun’s Priest’s Tale”, a proud rooster (and I can’t ignore how he’s described as a vain cock because… come on) named Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox on a day referred to as “since March began thirty days and two”. Now, I cannot begin to recap this story because it’s absolute nonsense, and if there are any Chaucer fans in here then I will fight you on that. The moral of the story is that the rooster was far too proud and far too gullible. So, the rooster was the fool on March 32nd, which is actually April 1st because, as we know, there’s no such thing as March 32nd. I think the real fool is Chaucer because, again, this is all just nonsense. Some people think that this is an early revelation of April Fools’ Day, and some people think that it was a translation error meant to say “32 days after March was over” which would mark it as May 2nd.But alas, we shall never know which is true.

I think the most popular theory is that it dates back to the Roman empire during the reign of Emperor Constantine. As per the tale, a group of jesters convinced Constantine to make one of the king for a day, and Constantine obliged them. What could possibly go wrong, he thought? A jester by the name of Kugel was appointed king for a day, and he decreed that this day would be a day of jollity. And that day was April 1st. But there’s one glaring issue with this story in that it was revealed to be a prank by Boston University professor Joseph Boskin that was pulled on an Associated Press reporter named Fred Bayles in 1983. Bayles reported the story, and Associated Press ran it only to retract it later when it turned out to be a hoax. At least this one outed itself as a hoax and it’s not trying to be something it isn’t. But, like I said before, this is a good example of how trying to do research for a national prank day is going to be a mixed bag of fact and fiction.

There are a couple of smaller theories on the origins ranging from Druidic rites in Britain to the Indian festival of Holi, but it doesn’t seem like these are any more concrete than the Hilaria or Chaucer’s story. That being said, there are clear references of playing pranks and fooling around as early as the late middle ages, which you could trace back to around 1400 AD. But the first clear reference that we actually have to the idea of April Fools’ Day was from 1508 AD. A French poet named Eloy d’Amerval made reference to “poisson d’avril” which means “April fish”. You might shake your head at that notion, because fish does not equal fool, but the French are a funny bunch. From what I can tell, it’s a sort of tradition that on April Fools’ Day in France you get a handful of paper fish and your goal is to stick it to the back of as many people as you can and then run away screaming “poisson d’Avril!”. So, the fact that this is still going on to this day (as far as I can tell) means that the reference by poet Eloy d’Amerval was likely the first proper reference to April Fools’ Day. Furthermore, the fact that it seems like it was a known thing at the time in 1508 means that it had been going on for some time which goes to say that it predates the Gregorian calendar change in 1564.

But all of that aside, we really don’t know the true origins of April Fools’ Day. It could be any one of these theories, or none of them at all. One passage in a series called Poor Robin’s Almanac puts it best:

“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”

But what we do know is that by the 1700’s, the holiday was known pretty well all around the world. In 1771, we have proof that the holiday was known in Canada and New England, and in Connecticut by 1796. Everywhere in the world did the holiday a little differently, but the gist was always the same. 

In Ireland, it was tradition to entrust a victim with an important letter. That person would read the letter, and the victim would take it to someone else until eventually it had passed through numerous hands probably to end up in a garbage bin somewhere. Inside the letter would read, “send the fool further”.

In Poland, they take Prima Aprilis very seriously to the point where people believe that anything said on April 1st could be a hoax. To the point where the Polish-anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I, signed on April 1st, 1683, was backdated to March 31st so that none could dispute its legitimacy.

In Ukraine, there is a festival that happens in town centres where there are all sorts of entertainment from concerts to street fairs and performances, along with typical pranking on passers-by. They are even known to dress up statues in funny clothes, which I think is fantastic.

While I couldn’t find anything particularly unique, there’s even word that it’s celebrated as far as Israel and Lebanon. But while everyone does it a little differently, there’s one thing that seems pretty consistent in the days’ affairs– any pranks played after 12pm noon on April 1st are seen as rude, or untimely. I’ve seen this noted in Poland, the UK, and North America, to name a few. I even remember hearing about this when I was growing up, even though I never really saw much pranking happen at all before noon or otherwise. I wonder why this is, though. I couldn’t find any actual explanations, except for some old publications that mention something about custard pies.

And instead of cutting this episode short, I wanted to give my top 5 April Fools’ Day pranks of all time. There are a lot out there, and I’m sure that as I hear more and more as the years go on, my list will change. But I want to welcome you to share your favourite pranks with me, too! Feel free to send me a message either on Instagram where I’m most active, or send me an email at loredtodeath@gmail.com. Whether it’s something that you’ve done, something that was done to you, or one of the countless famous pranks that has happened throughout history. I’d love to hear your favourite! But without further ado, here’s mine.

At number 5, we have a very simple but hilarious one. In 1992, NPR decided to broadcast a spot with Richard Nixon himself saying that he would be running for president again that year. It turns out that they hired an impersonator who managed to fool quite a few people. I don’t think that this one needs much explanation, considering… y’know… watergate. Like I said, it’s a very simple hoax but one that I’m sure gave some people a bit of a jumpstart to their morning. If you want me to cover watergate in a future episode, let me know… lol just kidding please don’t.

The number 4 slot goes to a ridiculously inappropriate joke. The first comes from everyone’s favourite pastime, Pornhub, who in 2016 changed their name and branding all over the site to Cornhub and featured videos of corn on their site instead of the usual affairs. But when one was to click on a video, they would be redirected to the world-famous “Never Gonna Give You Up” by internet hero Rick Astley. On top of an already fantastic joke, featuring corn everywhere on one of the most trafficked sites on the internet, having the classic meme pop up is icing on the cake.

For number 3 we have one that hits close to home here in Canadia. In 2008, CBC Radio program As It Happens interviewed a Royal Canadian Mint spokesperson. And, much to my disappointment, Royal Canadian Mint is not a maple syrup flavoured mint, but rather the mint that produces all of Canada’s circulation coins. They should really make a mint for an April Fools’ Day joke. I think that would land really well. Anyways, the spokesperson broke news about plans to replace the 5 dollar bill with a 3 dollar coin, which they were going to dub the “threenie”. If you don’t know, our 1 dollar and 2 dollar coins are called the loonie and toonie respectively, so I could genuinely see this happening at some point. I think this is fantastic, and again the fact that I could easily see them doing something like this makes the hoax that much better.

Number 2 has to go to another one that hits close to home for my fellow left-handed heretics. In 1998, Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing that they would be introducing a new line of burgers designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans– the left-handed whopper. As we know, left-handed folks have a hard time doing a lot of things: writing in spiral-bound notebooks, using fountain pens, cutting with scissors, and eating hamburgers. They noted that all of the condiments would be rotated 180 degrees, therefore distributing the weight of the sandwich so that the bulk of the condiments will skew to the left, thereby reducing the amount of lettuce and other toppings from spilling out the right side of the burger. Amazing. Even though it was just a hoax, apparently Burger King locations across the United States had customers come in and try to order their very own left-handed whopper, and even some who came in to request that they get a regular right-handed whopper so that they don’t run into spillage issues with their favourite handheld heart attack. This hoax is simple and clean, and I love it.

And finally, number 1 has got to be the exceedingly elaborate spaghetti tree hoax. I feel like everyone knows this one, but it’s worth going over for those who don’t. In 1957, the BBC program, Panorama, showed a three minute long report on April 1st. The report showed a family in Switzerland who, after a mild winter, was having a bountiful harvest of spaghetti after the virtual disappearance of the natural pasta pests, the spaghetti weevils. A woman was shown picking cooked spaghetti noodles off of a tree branch and putting them in a wicker basket, which is an extremely unsettling image. They talked about the trials and tribulations of breeding the perfect strain of spaghetti so that they got the optimal noodle length from their harvest. At the time, around 7 million homes in Britain had cable receivers, which means that just under half of Britain was able to tune in to this obscene broadcast. BBC had hundreds of call-ins from viewers to either question the authenticity of the program, or to simply ask how they can best get their hands on a spaghetti tree seed and starter kit. The pitch was made by freelance camera operator Charles de Jaeger, who got the idea from one of his teachers back in Austria who teased students for being so stupid that if they were told spaghetti grew on trees, they would believe it. I think this one is so brilliant because, at the time, spaghetti wasn’t very popular in Britain, and so many people genuinely had no idea that noodles didn’t come from trees. Simply for that fact alone, I think this is one of the greatest hoaxes of all time.

And that about does it for today’s episode. So what have we learned today? I think we’ve learned that you can’t trust everything you hear, especially on April 1st. We’ve also learned that sometimes, the simplest hoaxes are the most impactful. What makes a truly great lie is being able to find some semblance of truth in the lie, which makes something like the threenie or the spaghetti tree so hilarious. I think I’ve also learned that being a historian must be incredibly taxing. This is the first real world event that I’m writing a story on, and I could see it being my last. There’s something about writing about a work of fiction that makes it fun and interesting, and somehow all of that is lost on me when writing about the real world. It’s still interesting, don’t get me wrong, but it really does just feel like being in high school again writing essays.

Again, if you want to share your own April Fools’ Day hoaxes or stories, then you can find us online @loredtodeath on your favourite social media apps or at loredtodeath@gmail.com. You can also find me on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have any questions or suggestions for topics, please send me a message wherever you can find me,. If you’re using the Spotify app, there’s a Q&A function attached to the episode where you can submit any questions or topics. I would love to hear from you!

And remember, don’t believe anything that anyone tells you today unless it’s after noon. Be safe, have a happy April Fools’ Day, and I’ll lore you to death in the next one. C’ya.