How exactly did this day come about?

We don't actually know for sure what started this celebration of April Fools Day.

References can be found as early as the 1500s, but these accounts are infrequent and not very detailed.

Most popular theories that it began around 1582 in France, during the reformation of the calendar.

Before France adopted the Gregorian Calendar, they celebrated New Years for eight days.

Beginning on March 25th and ending on April 1st.

When they switched calendar systems, the 8th day moved from April 1st to January 1st.

Because they didn't have internet, phones, social media and a mail system, a lot of people didn't hear about this change until years later.

Those that did not hear about the change continued to celebrate New Years in April.

Others refused to celebrate it out of rebellion.

Those who had been informed of the change and adjusted their calendars began to make fun of these fools who were uninformed or rebellious.

This harassment evolved into a tradition of playing pranks on the 1st day of April and this spread to other countries.

However, April Fools Day was already established in England, which didn't switch calendar systems until 1752.

Also, people were already engaging in pranks and light-heartedness around this time of the year, long before the French switched their calendar systems.

Such as in the case of the ancient Roman festival of Hilaria.

Modern celebrations of April Fools Day have slightly different traditions depending on the country you are in.

But they all have the similar theme of pranking or humiliating individuals.

In France, they try to tape an image of a fish to your back without you noticing.

And in Portugal, they throw flour at you.

In England, you are only supposed to pull jokes until noon and if you pull a joke after noon, you are called an April Fool.

In the United States and Britain, even popular media outlets and companies have been known to get involved in the fun.

In 1996, Taco Bell announced that it had purchased the Liberty Bell from the city of Philadelphia and was going to rename it The Taco Liberty Bell.

In 1992, npr claimed that Richard Nixon would be running again for president.

British publication The Guardian, famously pranked the public in 1977 when they said that a semicolon-shaved island in the Indian Ocean had been discovered.

This hoax is credited for launching the trend of April Fools Day pranks by British tabloids.

So, hopefully you now know a little more about the history of April Fools Day or at least what we think the history of it is.

Now that we are at the end of this video, you might be wondering if all this information is accurate, seeing that it is a video about April Fools Day.

Yeah! It's accurate.

But seriously, it's accurate. I...I wouldn't do that to you.