Londyn Garden, 1g120@uakron.edu
April Fools' Day is a well-known American holiday for pranking. One would play a joke or prank on another person or group and then yell our “April Fools” to signal it was a joke. This holiday predates the United States as a country with it showing up in the late 16th century in France. But there are two different origins they believe the holiday has emerged from.
The first originated in Ancient Rome with the festival Hilaria which means joyful in Latin. Hilaria is celebrated by the Cybele-Attis cult and the Isis-Osiris cult. The Cybele-Attis cult is the one that celebrates from late March to early April. Historians say that the traditions on April Fools' Day are similar to some of the traditions practiced in Hilaria. On Hilaria many people would dress up in disguise and mock their fellow citizens.
The other origin the holiday emerged from is back in 1582 when they switched the calendar. Beforehand in France, they went by the Julien calendar which had 365 ¼ days to complete a year. But there was a mistake in the calendar so they switched to the Gregorian calendar which had 365 days to complete a year and a leap year every four years to keep us on track. Since the Calendar changed the beginning of the year changed also. It was no longer on April 1st but January 1st. Some people did not know or care that it changed so they continued to celebrate the new year on April 1st. People would mock and make fun of them when they saw them which created the pranking tradition for April Fools’ Day.