April Fools' Day is still a day away, but the pranks are already spreading.
April Fools' Day has been practiced for centuries.
April Fools' Day is still a day away, but the pranks are already spreading.
Not all April Fools' stunts work. Last year, Volkswagen created a news nightmare with its alleged brand name change.
Big brands can get a bump in buzz if they can come up with a prank that is plausible but not embarrassing.
It's not even April Fools' Day yet, but the pranks have already started.
Since big brands' embrace of April Fools' Day returned last year – after 2020's year in hibernation due to the COVID shutdown – some have tried to get the jump on the hijinks. It's the latest twist on a holiday that has its beginnings centuries ago.
Most notoriously, Volkswagen revved up a brouhaha last year when the German automaker let it slip three days before April Fools' Day that the company would be changing its name in the U.S. to "Voltswagen" as a show of its commitment to electric cars. But it turned out to be a poorly played joke.
It's a simple turn of the calendar, the ending of a month and the beginning of another. So how did it become a time for jokes and pranks?
How did April Fools' Day start?
While there are similar holidays in ancient Rome and Britain, the eldest – and tidiest – historical reference comes in a Flemish poem from 1561 in which a nobleman sends his servant on "fool's errands" on April 1, according to a history of the holiday written by Stephen Winick of the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center.
Roughly the same era in France, people slow to adopt the change of calendar from the last week of March to January 1 – due to the move from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, decreed in the Council of Trent – were called "April fools," and were played tricks on, according to History.com.
This is how April Fools' Day started and some of the brand pranks that went wrong
Mike Snider
USA TODAY
April Fools' Day has been practiced for centuries.
April Fools' Day is still a day away, but the pranks are already spreading.
Not all April Fools' stunts work. Last year, Volkswagen created a news nightmare with its alleged brand name change.
Big brands can get a bump in buzz if they can come up with a prank that is plausible but not embarrassing.
It's not even April Fools' Day yet, but the pranks have already started.
Since big brands' embrace of April Fools' Day returned last year – after 2020's year in hibernation due to the COVID shutdown – some have tried to get the jump on the hijinks. It's the latest twist on a holiday that has its beginnings centuries ago.
Most notoriously, Volkswagen revved up a brouhaha last year when the German automaker let it slip three days before April Fools' Day that the company would be changing its name in the U.S. to "Voltswagen" as a show of its commitment to electric cars. But it turned out to be a poorly played joke.
It's a simple turn of the calendar, the ending of a month and the beginning of another. So how did it become a time for jokes and pranks?
How did April Fools' Day start?
While there are similar holidays in ancient Rome and Britain, the eldest – and tidiest – historical reference comes in a Flemish poem from 1561 in which a nobleman sends his servant on "fool's errands" on April 1, according to a history of the holiday written by Stephen Winick of the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center.
Roughly the same era in France, people slow to adopt the change of calendar from the last week of March to January 1 – due to the move from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, decreed in the Council of Trent – were called "April fools," and were played tricks on, according to History.com.
The Catholic Church also may have had a hand in bringing April Fools' Day to the fore earlier in history. A carnival-like “Feast of Fools,” originally held in medieval France and England on Jan. 1, was practiced but was banned by the 15th century, folklorist Jack Santino told The Washington Post. But the holiday continued for hundreds of years, said Santino, who wrote the book "All Around the Year: Holidays and Celebrations in American Life."
By the 19th century, April Fools' Day had become a mainstay of American culture. "The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year," Mark Twain is credited with saying, according to the Encyclopedia of American Folklore.
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