It is believed that English pranksters started popularizing the annual tradition of April Fools’ Day on the 1st of April of the year 1700. They generally celebrated it by playing practical jokes on each other. However, this is just one of many beliefs of how the tradition first started and its exact origin still remains unknown.

According to some historians as they speculate that April Fools’ 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. They continued to celebrate it during the last week of March and April 1 became the day of jokes and swindles. These 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.

Later, April Fools’ Day spread throughout Britain during the 18th century. And now every year, the 1st of April is celebrated as April fools’ day across the globe.