Nobody actually knows for sure. Honestly, if you’re looking for a single name or a specific "Aha!" moment in a dusty diary from the 1500s, you’re going to be disappointed. History is messy. It’s full of gaps, bad translations, and people just making things up because it sounded good at a tavern three hundred years ago. When people ask who started April Fools' Day, they usually expect a tidy answer about a king or a specific decree. The reality is way more chaotic. It’s a mix of calendar shifts, ancient spring fever, and the universal human urge to make someone else look like an idiot.
Pranks are a part of our DNA. We've been doing this forever.
The most popular theory involves France and a guy named King Charles IX. Back in 1564, he decided to tidy up the calendar with the Edict of Roussillon. Before this, a lot of people celebrated the New Year around the spring equinox, which usually landed near April 1st. Charles wanted everyone on the same page, moving New Year's Day to January 1st. But news traveled slow back then. There was no Twitter. There were no push notifications. If you lived in a rural village, you might not get the memo for years. Or maybe you just didn't care.
So, the "smart" people who adopted the January 1st date started making fun of the "fools" who still celebrated in April. They’d stick paper fish on their backs. They called them Poisson d’Avril—April Fish. Why a fish? Because young fish are easy to catch. They're gullible. Just like the guy still partying for the New Year in the middle of spring.
The Calendar Shift Myth and Why It’s Only Half Right
It sounds perfect, doesn't it? It’s the kind of fact you tell people at a bar to sound smart. But there’s a massive hole in this story. Long before King Charles IX was even born, people were already acting like lunatics in late March.
Take the Flemish poet Eduard de Dene. In 1561—three years before the French calendar change—he wrote a poem about a nobleman who sent his servant on "fool’s errands" on April 1st. If the holiday was started by a calendar change in 1564, why were people in Belgium already pulling pranks in 1561? This is where the academic certainty starts to crumble.
Historians like Erika Janik have pointed out that humans have a biological urge to celebrate the end of winter. We get "spring fever." When the ice melts and the flowers bloom, we get a little bit rowdy.
Ancient Roots: Hilaria and Holi
If we want to find out who started April Fools' Day, we might need to look back at the Romans. They had a festival called Hilaria. It was celebrated at the end of March to honor Cybele, the Mother of the Gods. It involved masquerades, people dressing up as officials, and general mockery. It was a day where the social order flipped. The servant could act like the master. It was controlled chaos.
Then there’s Holi in India. It’s the Festival of Colors. It’s ancient. People throw colored powder, they dance, and they play jokes. It happens around the same time of year. Is it a direct ancestor of April Fools'? Probably not. But it proves that the concept of a "day of chaos" in spring is a global phenomenon, not just a French invention.
The British Influence and the "Washing of the Lions"
By the 1700s, April Fools' Day had firmly landed in Great Britain. This is where the pranks started getting elaborate. In 1698, a bunch of people in London were told to go to the Tower of London to see the "Washing of the Lions."
They showed up. They waited.
There were no lions being washed. There never were. It was a total scam.
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This became a recurring prank for centuries. People would actually print out official-looking tickets and distribute them to unsuspecting tourists or gullible locals. It worked every single time. It’s one of the earliest recorded "mass media" pranks, proving that you don’t need the internet to spread fake news. You just need a printing press and a lot of nerve.
In Scotland, they turned it into a two-day event. They called it "Huntigowk Day." The name comes from "hunting the gowk" (the cuckoo bird, a symbol of a fool). You’d send someone with a sealed message asking for help. The recipient would open it, read "Dinna laugh, dinna smile, hunt the gowk another mile," and then send the poor person to the next house with the same message. They’d walk for miles before realizing the letter just said to keep them walking.
Day two was "Tailie Day." That’s where the "Kick Me" sign tradition likely started. People would pin fake tails or signs to people’s butts. It was juvenile, sure, but it’s stayed with us for hundreds of years.
Why Do We Keep Doing This?
You’d think we’d have outgrown it by now. We haven't. If anything, the digital age has made it worse.
Psychologically, April Fools' serves a purpose. It’s a social "reset" button. It tests our skepticism. In a world where we are constantly bombarded with information, April 1st is the one day where we are actually encouraged to doubt everything.
- Social Bonding: Successfully pranking a friend creates an inside joke.
- Power Dynamics: For one day, the powerless can trick the powerful.
- Cognitive Sharpness: It reminds us to check our sources (hopefully).
In 1957, the BBC aired a segment on Panorama about "Spaghetti Trees" in Switzerland. They showed "farmers" harvesting noodles from branches. Thousands of people called in asking how to grow their own. The BBC told them to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
That’s the gold standard. It wasn't mean-spirited. It was just absurd.
The Dark Side of the Prank
Sometimes it goes wrong. Really wrong.
There’s a story from 1945 where a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp supposedly had a "prank" announcement that the war was over. When the prisoners realized it was a joke, the psychological fallout was devastating.
In more modern times, companies have accidentally tanked their stock prices by announcing "fake" mergers or product cancellations that people took seriously. There is a fine line between a clever trick and just being a jerk. The best April Fools' pranks are the ones where the victim laughs as hard as the prankster. If the "fool" feels humiliated or unsafe, you’ve failed the spirit of the day.
How to Not Be the "Gowk" This Year
If you're wondering who started April Fools' Day, the answer is basically "humanity." We started it because we like to laugh. We started it because spring makes us feel alive and a little bit reckless.
But in the era of deepfakes and AI-generated misinformation, the stakes are higher. You can't just trust a headline anymore.
Actionable Tips for Navigating April 1st
- Check the URL. If a major news story is coming from "TheNewYorkTimes.co" instead of ".com," it’s a prank. Or a scam. Probably both.
- Look for the "Too Good to Be True" factor. If a company announces a flying car that runs on sandwich crusts, take a breath. Check the date.
- Reverse Image Search. If you see a photo of a "new species" of purple tiger, right-click that image. Google will tell you it’s a photoshopped house cat in about three seconds.
- Wait until April 2nd. If you see a massive announcement on April 1st, don’t share it. Don't post it. Don't text your mom. Just wait 24 hours. If it's real, it'll still be news tomorrow.
- Know your audience. If you're the one pulling the prank, make sure the other person will actually find it funny. Don't prank your boss about quitting. Don't prank your partner about a pregnancy. Keep it to spaghetti trees and paper fish.
The tradition isn't going anywhere. Whether it started with King Charles, the Romans, or a bored Flemish poet, April Fools' Day is a permanent fixture of our culture. It's the one day a year where "I don't believe you" is the smartest thing you can say.
Keep your eyes open and your skeptical hat on tight. The world is full of people trying to wash the lions, and you don't want to be the one standing there with the ticket.