theories have been put forward about how the tradition began.
Unfortunately, none of them are conclusive. Thus, the origin of the
"custom of making April fools" remains as much a mystery to us as it
was back in 1708 CE.
The most popular theory about the origin of April Fools' Day involves
the French calendar reform of the sixteenth century. The theory goes
like this: In 1564 CE France reformed its calendar, moving the start
of the year fromthe end of March to January 1. Those who failed to
keep up withthe change, and stubbornly clungto the old calendar system
and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell
between March 25 and April 1, had jokes played on them. Pranksters
would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of
this prank were thus called 'poisson d'Avril', or April fish—which, to
this day, remains the French term for AprilFools' Day — and so the
tradition was born.
Others say that this started a long time before that, and that it was
initiated during the ancient ages as a part of polytheistic
celebrations on a set date on the beginning of the spring season. Yet
others say that fishing did not yield any catch in the first days of
the spring season and thus this was innovated as a newpractice on the
first of April.
According to legend, the Duke of Lorraine and his wife were imprisoned
at Nantes. They escaped on April 1, 1632 CE by disguising themselves
as peasants and walking through the front gate. Someone noticed them
escaping and told the guards. But the guards believed the warning to
be a " poisson d'Avril " (or April Fools' Day joke) and laughed at it,
thus allowing the Duke and his wife to escape.
"April's fish" was also said to be due to the movement of the sun from
Pisces (February 20- March 20) to the next sign. Some theories believe
that it was given this name after altering the word'passion' (as a
symbol for the torture that Jesus suffered) to 'poisson d'Avr il '.
British folklore links April Fools' Day to the town of Gotham, the
legendary town of fools located in Nottinghamshire. According tothe
legend, it was a tradition in the 13th century for any road that the
King placed his foot upon to become public property. So when the
citizens of Gotham heard that King John planned to travel through
their town, they refused him entry, not wishing tolose their main
road. When the King heard this, he sent soldiers to the town. But when
the soldiers arrived in Gotham, they found the town full of lunatics
engaged in foolish activities such as drowning fish or attempting to
cage birds in roofless fences. Their foolery was all an act, but the
King fell for the ruse and declared the town too foolish to warrant
punishment. Ever since then, according to legend, April Fools' Day has
commemorated their trickery.
The first lie on this occasion was recorded in a British magazine. The
April 2, 1698 CE edition of Dawks's News-Letter (a British newspaper)
reported that, "Yesterday being the first of April,several persons
were sent to the Tower Ditch to see the Lions washed." Sending
gullible victimsto the Tower of London to see the "washing of the
lions" (a non-existent ceremony) was a popular prank. It became
traditional for this prank to be played on April Fools' Day. Examples
of it occur as late as themid-nineteenth century In the eighteenth
century written references to April Fools' Day became numerous and
appeared throughout Europe.
One of the most famous incidentsthat happened in Europe on April 1,
was when the English newspaper, The Evening Star , announced in March
1746 CE that on the following day – April 1 st – there would be an
parade of donkeys in Islington, in England. The people rushed to see
these animals and there was a huge crowd. They continued waiting and
when they got tired of waiting, they asked about when the parade would
be held. They did not find anything, and then they finally realized
that they had come to make an exhibition of themselves, as if they
were the donkeys!
The above was just to show the history of this event. However, it is
not important to know what isits real source or how it originated.
What matters to us is the ruling of lying on this day.
This practice certainly never existed in the bright eras of
Islamduring which the Muslims highly cherished the rulings of Islam
and adhered to them as closely as they could. This event was certainly
not initiated by the Muslims, but rather, by their enemies.
The unfortunate part is that many Muslims have made it a common
practice for them to lie to their wives, friends or relativesand cause
them great sorrow and frighten them by lying on this day, claiming
that it is only a joke. Many a times, people have died as a result of
some of these lies due to heart attacks or become paralyzed from the
impact of the lie on them. Some people have even divorced their wives
and others have uttered such lies about a man's wife that he went and
killed her.
There is no end to such tragic stories associated with this day. The
only way one can restrain him/herself from falling in this evil
practice is by remembering the Islamic ruling which prohibitslying
even in jest.
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