Remember When April Fool’s Day Used to Be New Year’s Day?

— from The Book of Holidays Around the World by Alice van Straalen —

Until the 16th century, the New Year began in the spring, on [the feast of the Annunciation to Mary] March 25. People celebrated it with an eight-day festival that ended April 1, when they exchanged gifts.

As the European countries started adopting January 1 as the beginning of the year, many people refused to give up the custom they loved, and they were called April fools. A new custom, of making fun of anyone at all, gradually evolved.

The French call the fool the poisson d’avril [the fish of April] and try to pin a paper poisson on someone’s back without getting caught.

The Scots call it Huntigowk Day and send an unsuspecting person on an urgent errand to hung the gowk [a cuckoo].

One of the most famous hoaxes appeared in a British television “documentary” that showed Italian farmers harvesting long strips of spaghetti from trees.