April Fool’s Day Dates Back Centuries

There’s no clear origin to April Fool’s Day. References to the first of April as a day of trickery date back to Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” in the 14th century. The first recorded April Fool’s Day was in France in 1582. It’s believed that April 1st was celebrated as New Year’s Day before the Gregorian calendar changed it to January 1st. Those who didn’t get the word about the change were called “fools,” people played tricks on them. That grew into a tradition of playing pranks or telling lies on the first day of April.