Ah yes, April 1st, April Fools day, aka every single person you hate’s favorite day. Start playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes right now. Maybe get a juicy celebrity rumor trending on Twitter, I don’t know. Have fun with it. It’s 2018, so if you’re going to do a prank then social media is your best bet to cause chaos.
For those of you that are curious, the first ever recorded association between April 1 and tomfoolery came in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales (1392). That’s a few centuries worth of shenanigans. In Chaucer’s famous tale, the vain Chauntecleer is tricked by a fox.
Another fun fact: one possible precursor to April Fools’ Day may have been the Roman festival of Hilaria. I can understand why the Romans had such a good sense of humor. Since a mere scratch or diarrhea spelled certain doom back then, people really needed a laugh.
Countries all over have their own ways of celebrating the holiday. In Poland, the tradition was taken so seriously that a treaty that was signed on April 1st by the Kingdom of Poland was actually backdated to March 31st just so people knew they were serious. The Nordic countries– Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark– usually involve the media in some capacity, publishing fake stories to play tricks on people. #FakeNews indeed.
Over the years, April Fools’ Day has become a contemporary tradition. Nowadays, many media outlets will publish fake and humorous stories on April 1 in order to trick readers (don’t believe anything you see on the Internet today, folks). For example: In 2016, online soccer news channel Goal.com “reported” that FC Barcelona winger Lionel Messi had signed a €500 million deal with rival Real Madrid for five years. The author of the article: Lirpa Loof, or April Fool spelled backward.
Though April Fools’ Day has been widely popular since the 19th century, it is not a public holiday in any country (understandable).
But, in honor of the day of mischief, we’ve put together a gallery of the most hilarious memes and photos for you to enjoy. Read it while you pretend to be productive at work.
