Jokes and pranks aside; April Fools' Day gets cancelled this year

Fools' day 2020: Cancelled

April Fools' Day is cancelled this year, businesses have said, as they say light-hearted pranks should not be broadcast during the coronavirus pandemic.

Celebrated every year on 1 April, the Fools' Day marks the arrival of the month. It is the day people deliberately take into account to fool their fellow beings, do pranks, hoaxes and practical jokes on them and yell 'April Fool' after pulling the day's prank.

How did the day evolve?

And why should we need such a day? Let's check it out.

History and significance

The celebration of the Fools' Day on April 1 has its roots from multiple historical events, stories and legends. And may we should travel quite a long back to unearth the evolution of the day!

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

While some historians, on the other hand, speculate that the 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.

Now that sounds interesting!

And to add it, their pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as poisson d'avril (April fish), said to symbolize a young, "easily hooked" fish and a gullible person.

The day gets popularised

It was around the 18^th century and in its later period that the Fools' Day celebration in April got more popularised in Britain.

In Scotland, the celebration takes much more fascinating turn. The tradition is a two-day event for the Scottish. The first day starts with "hunting the gowk," in which people were sent on phony errands (gowk is a word for cuckoo bird, a symbol for fool). This is followed by Tailie Day, which involved pranks played on people's derrieres, such as pinning fake tails or "kick me" signs on them.

So it's not merely a day to be fooled it says!

The day is presently inevitable in the pop cult with much of the brands and companies taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to their marketing strategies.

This year, pranks and jokes part, the world joins its hands to gather to curb the spectre of the coronavirus pandemic.