"April Fools Day" and "April Fool's Day"

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day, though not a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holiday" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Holiday - Wikipedia</a> in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">April 1 - Wikipedia</a>. The day is marked by the commission of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoax" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Hoax - Wikipedia</a> and other <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practical_joke" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Practical joke - Wikipedia</a> of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipe_hunt" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Snipe hunt - Wikipedia</a>, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible.

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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernal_equinox" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Spring equinox - Wikipedia</a>, which began on the 25th of March, old <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Day" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">New Year's Day - Wikipedia</a>, and ended on the 2nd of April.
Though the 1st of April appears to have been observed as a general festival in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Britain" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Great Britain - Wikipedia</a> in antiquity, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotland" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Scotland - Wikipedia</a> the custom was known as "hunting the gowk," i.e. the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuckoo" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Cuckoo - Wikipedia</a>, 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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaucer" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Geoffrey Chaucer - Wikipedia</a>'s story <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nun%27s_Priest%27s_Tale" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">The Nun's Priest's Tale - Wikipedia</a> (c.1400), which concerns two fools and takes place "thritty dayes and two" from the beginning of March, which is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">April 1 - Wikipedia</a>. The significance of this is difficult to determine.
Europe may have derived its April-fooling from the French.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Fool%27s_Day#cite_note-0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">April Fools' Day - Wikipedia</a> 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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">January 1 - Wikipedia</a> officially <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year%27s_Day" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">New Year's Day - Wikipedia</a> (which was already celebrated by many), by decree of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_IX_of_France" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Charles IX of France - Wikipedia</a>. This was in 1564, even before the 1582 adoption of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Gregorian calendar - Wikipedia</a> (See <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_year_%28calendar%29#Julian_start_of_the_year" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Julian calendar - Wikipedia</a>). Thus the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Year" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">New Year - Wikipedia</a>'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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zodiac" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Zodiac - Wikipedia</a> 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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_people" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Dutch people - Wikipedia</a> also celebrate the 1st of April for other reasons. In 1572, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlands" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Netherlands - Wikipedia</a> were ruled by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spain" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Spain - Wikipedia</a>'s King <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_II_of_Spain" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Philip II of Spain - Wikipedia</a>. Roaming the region were Dutch rebels who called themselves <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geuzen" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Geuzen - Wikipedia</a>, after the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">French language - Wikipedia</a> "gueux," meaning beggars. On <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">April 1 - Wikipedia</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1572" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">1572 - Wikipedia</a>, the Geuzen seized the small coastal town of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den_Briel" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Den Briel - Wikipedia</a>. This event was also the start of the general civil rising against the Spanish in other cities in the Netherlands. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernando_%C3%81lvarez_de_Toledo%2C_Duke_of_Alba" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, 3rd Duke of Alba - Wikipedia</a>, commander of the Spanish army could not prevent the uprising. Bril is the Dutch word for glasses, so on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">April 1 - Wikipedia</a>, 1572, "Alba lost his glasses." The Dutch commemorate this with humor on the first of April.



Quotes about April Fools' Day

"April 1st: This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four." — <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Mark Twain - Wikipedia</a>