Our Day of Fools Dates Back to France in 1584

Knowing today’s paper would be published on April Fool’s Day, we naturally discussed the idea of a phony article, perhaps my column could be about something from Paris’Past that didn’t really happen, and I would end with the classic line “April Fools!”. After giving this a lot of thought we decided against trying to fool our readers because it seems to us like everyday has become April Fools day especially on social media and reality television. We would like The Paris Independent to be the one source of media that our community can count on to be factual and reliable. So instead of fake news I am staying true to my column and looking to the past to discover why we even have such April Foolery and when did it all begin? It turns out nobody knows for certain just when the custom of setting aside a day for foolishness originated. But it’s old People in ancient India used to play tricks on each other during the feast of Huli which falls on March 31st The French (1) can be credited for our modern April Fool's Day observance. Back in 1584 Charles IX adopted the reformed calendar making the year begin on Jan. 1st , instead of April 1st . It had been the custom to exchange gifts on New Year’s Day, so people took to sending their neighbors mock gifts - like a ball of cotton dipped in chocolate to make it look like candy, The victim was tagged a “poisson d'avril” or “April fish”. A romantic legend has it that April Fool's Day saved the lives of the Duke of Lorraine and his wife. Imprisoned in Nantes (2) they escaped in peasant garb At the gate a woman recognized them and called to the guard. Knowing it was April 1st , the guard merely laughed. In England and Scotland

(3) the custom caught on in the 18th century. In Scotland, April Fools are called gowks or cuckoos. Some kind of fool's errand was the favorite trick to play on friends and neighbours. But no matter who started it all April Fool’s Day jokes (4) like the classic wallet on a string trick, appear likely to continue with us for many generations and most of us will probably fall for the old gags again this year!