April Fools' Day

April fools' day is celebrated as a day with lots of humor and making foolishness the world over. April 1st is the day of the year especially regarded as the day for cracking jokes and hoaxes. The day is considered by many for making humorous events, fooling others, doing practical jokes with friends and families, at school and academic institutions, neighborhood, at work etc. This day is not generally considered as a holiday but day spend in jokes. It is celebrated differently in different countries and regions but mostly the day is spend with making humor and cracking jokes.

​The origin of this special day is uncertain but some see it as a day related to the turn of the seasons while others consider it as a day of adoption of a new calendar. One explanation goes like this, such as in the middle ages many Europeans celebrated the New Year's day on March 25. Most of Europe celebrated the New Year around this day with a week long holiday ending on April 1. Later the date for New Year celebration was officially adopted on January 1 by the Edict of Roussillon replacing the Julian Calendar. The new calendar called New Year's day on January 1st. Many people became confused and refused to accept the new date as the New Years day and continued to celebrate New Year on April 1. Other people made fun of these people who still practiced their older custom of celebrating on April 1. Another explanation suggest that the practice started during the period of Constantine. A group of jester or jokers and fools from his court told the Roman emperor that they could do better job to run the Roman empire. The emperor allowed a jester named Kugel to be the emperor for one day. Kugel passed a proclamation of foolishness on that day, and since then the custom became an annual event. Another explanation is that the celebration coincides with the time of the year when it turns from winter to spring around the start of April. It is accompanied with humorous celebrations such that of the Roman celebration of Hilaria, the Hindu celebration of Holi, and the Jewish celebration of Purim.

April Fools' day is celebrated throughout the West. Traditionally April 1 is celebrated by tacking paper fish on each others back as a trick and shout out "April fish." Others include playing funny jokes by sending someone a fools errand, looking for things that do not exist, playing pranks, and trying to make people believe in ridiculous things etc.

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