PICKENS COUNTY — If you woke up this morning to salt in your coffee or toothpaste under your car door handle, there’s a reason — it’s April Fools Day and pranks abound.
Although the origins of the day are somewhat unclear, it is clear that on April 1, you watch your back — because someone might try to stick a “kick me” sign on it.
As it turns out, there are two main theories as to where the day comes from: a celebration of changing seasons (a Spring fever kind of thing) and, strangely enough, the adoption of the Gregorian calendar.
Many ancient cultures, like the Hindus and the Romans, observed New Year’s Day on or around April 1 as it closely follows the vernal equinox. That is, until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII decided that a new calendar (the Gregorian Calendar) was needed to replace the old Julian Calendar.
The Gregorian calendar called for New Year’s Day to be celebrated Jan. 1.
The story goes that many people balked and refused to accept the new date. Instead, whether by willfulness or ignorance of the change, people continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1.
Soon other people began to make fun of those refusing to accept the new date and made it a habit of sending them on “fool’s errands.” From there, the practice practice spread throughout Europe and eventually to the Americas.
That’s one theory — and while at first glance it seems to make sense, there is one major problem with it: the Gregorian calendar wasn’t adopted by England until 1752, but April Fools Day had already been long established.
The “Spring fever” theory has no historical roots to speak of, only that people and animals after being cooped up all Winter tend to go a little nuts once the warmer weather moves in. Spirits lift, flowers bloom, and people get mischievous. After all, it’s all in good fun.
By far, the best theory for explaining the origins for April Fools Day turned out not to be a theory at all, but instead a prank in and of itself …
Boston University History Professor Joseph Boskin explained to a reporter that the practice of jokes and pranks on April 1 all started with the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine. He said that when a group of court jesters and fools told the Constantine that they could do a better job of running the empire he named the court jester Kugel “king for a day.”
Kugel then passed an edict calling for absurdity on that day, and the custom eventually became an annual event that is now observed all across the Western world.
The Associated Press picked up the article and it was printed in newspapers across the county in 1983. The problem? Professor Boskin had simply made the whole thing up.
April Fools.
