Did you ever wonder about the origin of April Fool's Day? I just happened to be thinking of that and decided to do a bit of research. Here's what I found:
Back in 1582, when Europe decided to switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, the new year was officially moved back 4 months. You see, in the old Julian calendar, the new year fell on the spring equinox, around our current April 1st. So when the switch came and the new year was moved back to the dead of winter, the people who still celebrated New Year's in the spring were called fools because they hadn't caught on to the new calendar.
These poor uninformed people became the targets of hoaxes and pranks, such as having paper fish affixed to their backs and called "poisson d'avril," or "April fish," meaning that they were as gullible as an easily caught fish.
Some people think that April Fool's Day is also linked to the pranks played by Mother Nature as she foists unpredictable weather on us poor fools during spring. Who knew?
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