April Fool's Day 2018 | Calendar Table

April Fool’s Day 2018

In 2018, April Fool’s Day is celebrated on Sunday, April 1st. April Fool’s Day has a fixed date, and always falls on April 1st.

When Do We Celebrate April Fool’s Day?

April Fool’s Day, or All Fool’s Day, is celebrated each year on April 1st. No one is certain why or when the holiday started.

Some believe that the holiday came about when France switched its calendar to the Gregorian from the Julian in 1582. Not everyone knew about the switch, and some continued to celebrate the new year at the end March and beginning of April instead of January 1st. As a consequence for the their folly, people thought them foolish and began to play jokes on them.

Another theory is that April Fool’s Day is connected to the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

Why Do We Celebrate April Fool’s Day?

April Fool’s Day is celebrated by playing pranks and practical jokes. Both the joke and and the person/people tricked are “April Fools”.

In the U.S. and the England the phrase “April Fools” is said (or sometimes shouted) by the perpetrator of the hoax to expose the trick. Scotland, Ireland, Poland, the Nordic Countries, Italy, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, french Switzerland and Canada, India, and Romania all have different traditions involving trickery on April 1st.

In Spain and Hispanic countries December 28th is celebrated as a day of jokes and pranks. Once the joke is played, the jokers either decry the innocence of the victim, or proclaim the innocence of themselves depending on the country.

Belgium also acknowledges December 28th as a day for parents and grandparents to prank children, but it is no longer widely celebrated.

On the other hand, Brazil has “The Day of the Lie” and Minorca, a Spanish island, has “Fooling Day” on April 1st.

Romans used to celebrate a similar day and it was called Hilaria

In Scotland, this day used to be known as “Hunt the Gowk Day”. Gowk means  foolish person in Scottish.

In Canada and England, the pranks are only allowed in the morning of 1st of April.


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