Fool's Day

On April 1st, as soon as the Sun rises up, a lot of Western countries, including Russia, face April Fools' Day. On this day people make jokes, do pranks, and act like full-on comedians.

Where does the tradition come from? 😯

It's hard to pin down this tradition. According to one of the versions, it's connected with the shift of New Year date from spring to February in France, 16-th century. Winter became the new season for celebrating New Year, but the old date wasn't forgotten, as people started using it to congratulate each other for fun.

Apart from that, there's a belief that the tradition has religious roots like many cultural phenomena. No wonder religion had a huge impact on peoples' minds — it was the key influencer for a long time.

Here's the theory that appeals to me most 🙃

In the 4th century Eastern Roman Empire was reigned by Constantine (the Emperor, who established Christianity and named the modern city Istanbul after himself). He had his own jester, who one day made a joke about ruling a country. He said that he could reign as well the emperor. Despite the fact, that the jester was just messing around, Constantine ordered him to actually reign the country. But only one day a year. That's how the 1st April appeared — fools' day. Associated Press was in favour of this story, as in 1983 it shared this news referring to Joseph Boskin (a history professor of Boston University). Later it turned out to be a first April's joke.

Why do I need April Fools' symbols? 😛

One day a stranger may contact you on the Internet and say that your uncle Bob from California died and now you inherited his house, money, swimming pool and God knows what else. So to become a billionaire, you just need to send a teeny-tiny sum of money as a transfer fee. Before emptying your pockets, look at the , maybe they're trying to make a fool of you. If so, copy a symbol from this set and send it in response.