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April Fools Day: April 1
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Perhaps the most widely accepted theory of the origin of April Fools’ Day goes back to a time when the western world employed the Julian calendar. At that time, new years began on March 25 and festivals marking the start of the New Year were celebrated on the first day of April because March 25 fell during a Holy Week. However, after the adoption of the Gregorian calendar in the 1500s, the New Year moved to January 1. The "April fools" were those who could be tricked into believing April 1 was still the proper day to celebrate the New Year. The key prank during this time was for French peasants to unexpectedly drop in on neighbors on that day in an effort to confuse them into thinking they were receiving a New Year's call. And out of that one lark supposedly grew the tradition of testing the patience of family and friends.
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April Fools Day occurs every year on April 1st. Although this fun holiday is now celebrated in the United States, it first started a long time ago in France. Back in the 1500’s, France used to celebrate the start of the new year on April 1st. Like celebrations for New Year’s now, every year on April 1st the French would have large parties and festivals until late into the night in order to celebrate. But then, in 1562, Pope Gregory brought a new calendar to France. He changed the calendar so that the first day of the year was on January 1st, not April 1st.
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As part of an April Fools' joke on April 1, 1997, Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak switched hosting duties. Pat hosted Jeopardy! that day and Alex hosted Wheel of Fortune where Sajak and Vanna White played as contestants. Jeopardy! announcer Johnny Gilbert did double duties that day.
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April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is celebrated on April 1st as a day for practical jokes, pranks and hoaxes. This light-hearted humor has become a popular tradition between not only friends and family, but media sources as well. Watch out on April Fools Day! Are you being hoaxed?
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To enter the "Name That Monkey" contest, kids ages seven through 14 are being asked to scratch their heads and visit http://www.foohy.com/ beginning April Fools Day (April 1). Contest runs through May 15. Traditionally, a day set aside for playful pranks, Foohy has re-named the hoaxer's holiday to April "Foohy" Day in a nod to the contest's tongue-in-cheek take on one monkey's missing birth certificate.
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Arguably the best media-generated April fools’ joke dates from a Richard Dimbleby “news report” aired on 1 April 1957 on BBC’s Panorama. It opened with a line about Spring coming early this year, prompting the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland to be early, too.
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