Gotcha!
The totally and completely true story about the origin of April Fool’s Day
T
he year was 1506. King Alfonso IV of Spain died suddenly and unexpectedly due to an unexplained illness. The royal advisors were at a loss of what to do. King Alfonso IV had died before getting married or producing heirs. The throne would have gone to his younger brother, José. However, just two weeks earlier, José along with much of the royal family had died in a tragic church fire at the wedding of their cousin, Juana of Trastamára. The only surviving member of the royal family was the son of King Alfonso’s third cousin, Carlos. Carlos worked as a court jester for King Alfonso, a notably odd profession for a man of his standing. Carlos was crowned king just three weeks after the death of King Alfonso, on April 1, 1506. The newly crowned King Carlos made some unorthodox decisions. One of these was the implementation of a new celebration, known as the Festival of Fools. Carlos chose the day April 1, as a reminder of the profession he left behind when he took on the role of king. The celebration included several parades throughout the Spanish empire. Court jesters were held in the highest
regard on this day, carried around on thrones with feasts thrown in their honor. On this day, members of the empire tried to make the jesters laugh by playing pranks and jokes on one another. Eventually, the presence of jesters in the court diminished, but the tradition of making others laugh through pranks and jokes continued and spread as the Spanish empire grew. Gotcha! None of that is even the slightest bit true. Historians aren’t certain of the real start of April Fool’s Day, but there are several theories as to the origin of this day of pranks. According to Dictionary.com, one theory is that April Fool’s Day began in 1594 with the Edict of Roussillon in France, which shifted the New Year from Easter to Jan 1. Those who continued to celebrate the new year on Easter rather than Jan. 1 were known as April fools. Another theory is that the origin lies in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer referenced a made up March 32 in one of his stories. The story was “The Nun’s Priest Tale,” and was meant to be hilarious
Successful Student Pranks “My friend and I did a prank where we convinced our friends that my friend had a boyfriend. We had photos and came up with like small details and told them all of it and they believed it. After a while we told them it was a prank.” - Kendyl Eber, 10
“In December of 2019 during finals week, me and my friend decided to prank our forensics teacher Mrs. Harrison by going into her classroom earlier in the morning before she got there, and [we] hung up around 200 photos of Steve Buscemi. We got entrance through Cooley leaving her room unlocked for us and went through
the door that connected the classrooms. We as well gave every student a photo to turn in with their test, so as she graded each test she had to take out and throw away another photo of Steve Buscemi. The reason for it being Steve Buscemi was we were talking about “Spy Kids 2” earlier in the year and she said he creeped her out. Our masterpiece of it was when we went outside and taped one on the outside looking in that stayed up all the way until the end of summer 2020.” - Griffin Burke, 12
Illustration by Rachel Shultz
By Rachel Shultz, Print Editor
and foolish. This may have been his attempt at the first April Fools prank, but some historians believe it was a simple misprint. Regardless of the origin, April Fool’s Day is a time for good fun and laughter. A good prank doesn’t harm others, but rather makes them laugh. Remember the phrase “confuse don’t abuse.” Now get out and start planning ways to prank your friends!
Plan Your Own Successful Prank! Bake oatmeal raisin cookies and tell everyone they’re chocolate chip cookies. This one will only work if your friends hate raisins as much as I do! Sign your friends up for daily email or text lists. There are a variety of daily newsletters that range from animal facts to useless trivia. Sign them up for as many as you can find and watch as their inbox overflows. Pick two of your friend’s things and hide them. Then tell them you hid three. Watch the chaos ensue when they only find two.
feature 11
