Can you explain why April Fool’s Day was created ? The date is remembered on April 1 of each year and it is common to provoke jokes among people. But an apparently irrelevant date has a curious history.
In this article you will discover the origin of April 1 in the world and understand how a historical fact influenced the creation of that day. Check it out now.
April Fool’s Day Creation Story
The April Fool’s Day began in the early 16th century and what influenced him was a historic event that occurred in France and soon spread all over Europe.
At that time, the new year was celebrated on March 25 , the period when spring arrived on the Old Continent. This date was quite celebrated, something quite common at the turn of the years. So much so that the festivities continued until the following week, ending more or less on the first day of April.
April Fool’s Day began in the early 16th century (Photo: depositphotos)
However, there was a change imposed by the Catholic Church that threatened this tradition. Pope Gregory 13 created a new calendar, which was later known as the Gregorian calendar. In it, the new year started to be celebrated on January 1st annually .
After that, King Charles 9th, whose reign lasted between 1560-1574, ended up adopting the Gregorian calendar in the year 1564. In this way, France began to celebrate the first day of the year on 1 January.
Despite the royal decree, a large part of the French continued to celebrate the New Year on the old date that started on March 25 and continued until April 1 . They started to resist the new celebrations and, with that, started to be the target of teasing.
Although the new calendar was launched for a Christian audience, at this time, the power of the Catholic Church spread throughout the world and ended up influencing the departure of a year old in late December.
However, those people who resisted the new date, started calling attention in the streets between late March and early April, as they insisted on celebrating the arrival of the new year.
“April fools”
Over time, these resistant Europeans started to get ridiculous from people for not accepting the new date and started to be called “April fools” . In addition, many people invited them to parties that did not exist, an irreverent way of calling them to celebrate the new year that was no longer celebrated on that date.
Hence the association of April 1 with something that does not exist, a liar, that does not make sense.
The game became practically a tradition throughout France. And always on April 1, the teasing started with those who still wanted to celebrate the new year on that date.
It was then that the habit migrated to England. In Terra da Rainha, April Fool’s Day gained fame and spread to the rest of the planet. There, the thing is taken seriously and even the mainstream newspapers make lying headlines and entire articles satirizing the day.
In China, things are quite different. April 1, April Fools’ Day, is prohibited by the Chinese Governmen.
Biggest lies ever “officially” told on April 1
Newspapers and institutions from around the world often play with April Fool’s Day. In England, it is practically a tradition for widely circulated publications to produce entire reports rambling on supposed truths.
Recently, a London newspaper gave a “scoop”: Prince Harry had married actress Meghan Markle . The ceremony was said to have been secret and made headlines on April 1. The fact was soon denied, but it still took the most unsuspecting by surprise.
In Brazil, the case that occurred in 1848 was also famous. A newspaper reported that Dom Pedro II had died . Of course it was a lie, but the fact of the lack of communication at the time led many people to believe it and even after the publication denied it, the rumors remained. In fact, Dom Pedro would only die 43 years later.
See also: Who were the biggest liars in the world?
And games don’t just work in the West. The newspaper of the son of dictator Saddam Hussein reported, in 1998 and later in the year 2000, that the American president, then Bill Clinton, had ended sanctions against Iraq.
Also famous was the story that was created by one of England’s most powerful entrepreneurs, Richard Branson. He even developed a balloon in the shape of a flying saucer, whose driver was a man dressed in et . The fact ran across London and even the police were called in to deal with the foreign object. But it was all just a catch, which became famous all over the world.
Brands and companies that joined the game
And the lies don’t stop there. Famous brands also divulged untruths and ended up falling into popular taste. Netflix, for example, used all of its influence to lie about including the Game of Thrones series in its grid .
The famous brand Cheetos took advantage of April Fool’s Day to announce a new product: a perfume with the essence of its snack . The brand went further and even released a launch video.
Samsung also joined the wave and created a cell phone so thin that it can be used as a knife to cut vegetables . The product even got a name: Galaxy Blade Edge.
Google, the internet giant, also does not let April 1 go unnoticed. The company’s jokes have become a tradition and it always finds a way to innovate to play with its users.
