Hometown Christian Magazine April Fool's Day ~ History
Writing for HCM has provided me the opportunity for thorough holiday research. I was quite surprised when I stumbled upon the HISTORY behind the holiday APRIL FOOLS DAY.
As I found, April Fool’s Day began back in the late 1500s in Scotland. James Campbell was the jokester who started the trend by telling people that the glass of water they were drinking out of, previous had goldfish in it.
You can imagine how many people would spit the water out only to find James was telling a little fib. He’d follow the story up by saying, “April Fools”… just as I am doing now. Ha ha ha… got ya! April Fools!
The real story behind April Fool’s Day dates back as far as the year 1392 when a writer purposefully included an error about a king’s anniversary, quoting the date as March 32… i.e. April 1st. Yep, that small little jester has encouraged massive tricks every year on April 1 around the world even until today.
And I must confess… the little fib about the goldfish is a true story. Only it didn’t happen to James Campbell in the late 1500s. It happened to me at the mere age of seven after a long, sweaty walk home from school under the brutal, sweltering, Arizona sun. My sister-in-law was the prankster who laughs at that story until this very day.
