Why Do We Have April Fools Day?

It’s April Fools Day. Beware … trust no one.

But first … is it April Fools Day? Or April Fool’s Day? Or April Fools’ Day?

However you write it, social media has embraced this centuries-old tradition of trickery. Even Smokey Bear got in on the joke by announcing on his Facebook page this morning that he was moving from his work in the forest to a desk job as Vice President of Wildfire Prevention Operations at the U.S. Forest Service, complete with suit and tie.

Here at Bearing Drift, April Fools has been a tradition for years, and senior contributor D.J. McGuire made sure we didn’t miss out on it this year, too. In the past various writers have announced their run for public office and other shenanigans.

History.com fills us in on the origins of this off-the-wall holiday:

On April 1, 1700, English pranksters begin popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools’ Day by playing practical jokes on each other.

Although the day, also called All Fools’ Day, has been celebrated for several centuries by different cultures, its exact origins remain a mystery.

Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes.

So be careful out there. Take everything you read and hear with a grain of salt. But above all, enjoy this light-hearted day of fun.