April Fools' Day (alternatively
April Fool's Day, sometimes
All Fools' Day) is celebrated in many countries on April 1 every year. April 1 is not a
national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when people play
practical jokes and
hoaxes on each other called
April fools.
In
Italy,
France and
Belgium, children and adults traditionally tack paper fishes on each other's back as a trick and shout "April fish!" in their local languages (
pesce d'aprile!,
poisson d'avril! and
aprilvis! in
Italian,
French and
Flemish, respectively). Such fish feature prominently on many late 19th to early 20th century French April Fools' Day postcards.
The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness is an ambiguous reference in
Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of January 1 by
Pope Gregory XIII as
New Year's Day of the
Gregorian Calendar in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, sometimes questioned for earlier references.