The Beginnings of April Fool’s Day

Today is April 1 and that means it’s April Fool’s Day. Be wary of anything you see or hear as it may be a prank. A video by Jeremiah Warner, “The History of April Fools Day,” seeks to explain the beginnings of this tradition.

According to Warner, the start of April Fool’s Day was based on miscommunication of the new year of the Gregorian calendar in France. This led to playing pranks on the first of April and became popular in other countries. While that happened in France, Warner states that England had already established April Fool’s Day by 1754. He also mentions various media outlets have utilized the day to publish prank stories, such as a claim in 1977 by the British daily newspaper The Guardian that an island in the shape of a semi-colon had been found in the Indian Ocean.

The history of April Fool’s Day has been seen in La Cañada Flintridge as well. According to the La Cañada Valley Sun, the newspaper published a cover in 1954 with the family of Edgar F. Davis of Fairlawn Drive that played “tricks” on those who saw the photo of the group posed in “mock seriousness.” The photo was done again, 50 years later in 2004, with the family of John and Kathie Hansen. The image featured flaws such as upside down items, people dressed in two jackets or two different shoes, and a variety of other high jinks.