Pranks can be quite simple, such as sending people on wild goose chases or quite complicated, as some of the following examples illustrate. Nowadays when someone has an April Fool trick played on them, the prankster will generally shout “April Fool!”. This was followed by Tailie Day, which rather bizarrely involved playing pranks on people’s bottoms, such as attaching pretend tails or ‘kick me’ notes to them. Hunt the gowk another mile.” The recipient would send the messenger on to another person with the same message, and so on. It entailed sending folk on phony errands, often carrying messages reading, “Dinna laugh, dinna smile.
It was particularly popular in Scotland where it became a two-day event, starting with ‘hunting the gowk’, gowk meaning ‘cuckoo’ or ‘fool’. The idea of April Fools’ Day spread rapidly throughout Britain during the 18th century. They would make the trip to the Tower only find that, of course, there was no such ceremony and they had been sent on a fool’s errand. Unsuspecting gullible folk were invited to view the annual ceremony of the washing of the lions at the Tower of London. This unlikely event was a popular prank in London during the 18th and 19th centuries. The edition of ‘Dawks’s News-Letter’ on 2nd April 1698 reported that “Yesterday being the first of April, several persons were sent to the Tower Ditch to see the lions washed”. It would appear however that by this time April Fool traditions were well established in Britain.
If so, you would expect to find references to April Fool’s Day from then onwards, whereas the first reference wasn’t until 1686 when the writer John Aubrey referred to “Fooles holy day”. Ever since then, according to legend, April Fool’s Day has commemorated their trickery.
#MEAN APRIL FOOLS PRANKS FULL#
This was enough for the king’s men to counsel the king to choose somewhere else for his lodge, as Gotham was obviously full of madmen. They decided to ‘play the fool’ so when the king’s men arrived in the town, they found the townspeople doing all sorts of crazy things such as trying to drown fish. Naturally this was not popular with the townsfolk and so they decided on a cunning plan to dissuade the king. According to legend, King John decided to ‘acquire’ some of the land of Gotham for a hunting lodge. In British folklore, April Fool’s Day is associated with Gotham in Nottinghamshire and an event from the 13th century. Those who adopted the new calendar played tricks on those who had not and referred to their victims as ‘April Fools’. After the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, New Year was moved to January 1st, a change that was not universally popular. For example, traditionally on April Fool’s Day all pranks are supposed to stop at 12 noon sharp, with anyone playing a joke after midday then considered the ‘April Fool’.Īnother theory has April Fool’s Day originating in 16th century France, where the beginning of the New Year was originally observed on April 1st. This time of renewal and rebirth was marked with fun and jollity, not dissimilar to the Roman festival of Hilaria in late March which was celebrated with the wearing of disguises, rejoicing and merrymaking.Ĭertainly April Fool’s Day has all the characteristics of such a renewal festival, pushing the boundaries of everyday behaviour yet with the resultant disorder set within a strict time frame.
One theory is that April Fools’ Day was purely the result of its timing at the end of winter and the coming of spring. Unfortunately the origin of the ‘custom of making April Fools’ is uncertain. “Whence proceeds the custom of making April Fools?” This was the question asked of the wonderfully-entitled publication ‘British Apollo or Curious Amusements for the Ingenious’ in 1708.
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