Purposeful deceptions of the April fool

Western Folklore, Summer 2002 by McEntire, Nancy Cassell

From early morning till noon, people irrespective of caste and creed amuse themselves by throwing handfuls of coloured powder on their friends and relatives. Or they spray coloured water with sprayers. Boys and persons of the lower castes come out in the streets and throw coloured water through syringes, using at the same time, abusive and obscene language. But the elderly people gently put red powder on the faces of each other. The damage to one's clothes is taken in good spirit. (Sharma 1978:67)

Although it is tempting to suggest that contemporary celebrations of the April Fool are derived from ancient Hindu sources, the origin of this unofficial holiday remains uncertain. Organized festivals and spontaneous personal acts that celebrate the absurd through pranks exist worldwide, and the motives for these behaviors are diverse and complex.5

The celebration of pranks and widespread deceptions of fools generally occurs in late March or early April, when the weather is changing from winter to spring. A notable exception to the time of year for these activities can be found in Mexico, where all Fools' Day falls on December 28. Here pranking behavior focuses on the borrowing of objects. If anyone is imprudent enough to lend personal possessions on that day, the borrower is not obligated to return them. Instead the lender receives a poem that identifies him or her as a fool (Ickis 1970:75).

Historical considerations of All Fools' pranks take us back to the year 1564, when Charles IX of France adopted the Gregorian calendar, moving the New Year from March 25 to January 1. Presumably those who forgot about this change or who stubbornly refused to go along with it were referred to as April Fools (Cohen and Coffin 1987:147; Hatch 1978:315; MacDonald 1992:223; Santino 1995:97).6 Under the Julian calendar, French people had visited each other and exchanged gifts (Etrennes) on April 1, the final day of the old calendar's New Year's celebrations. A calendar change of this magnitude came slowly, partly because communication was slow, and mainly because of the popular attachment to tradition. Eventually those conservatives who objected to the change of New Year's Day to January 1 were ridiculed with April 1 visits that mocked the original ceremony of visiting and through the exchange of foolish gifts (Christianson 2000:248; Spicer 1958:35). The use of pranking within the context of the new calendar is also in keeping with traditional behavior associated with Julian calendar events. Pranking was customary on the eighth (Octave) and final day of the New Year's celebrations under the Julian calendar, so it is understandable that some of this activity was retained after the implementation of the new Gregorian calendar (Bjornson 1980:32). A1766 writer in England's Gentkman's Magazine gives this description of the last day of the eight-days accompanying the older, March 25 celebrations: "It became a day of extraordinary mirth and festivity, especially among the lower sort, who are apt to pervert and to make bad use of institutions, which at first might be very laudable in themselves" (Palmer and Lloyd 1972:132). In Scotland, March 25 was retained as the New Year until 1600. In England and the British colonies, the Gregorian (January 1) date was not adopted until 1752. April Fools' Day customs in America thus seem to have derived from French sources, which then spread to Scotland to England, and from there, to North America. However, this pattern of migration is not exclusive.