Ever wonder where April Fools’ Day got started? Well, according to the History Channel, some historians say it dates to 1582. That’s the year when “… France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563. In the Julian Calendar, as in the Hindu calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes and were called ‘April fools.’”
These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs symbolizing a young, easily caught fish or gullible person.
Today, there are those via newspapers, radio, TV and websites that go to incredible lengths to dream up April Fools’ Day hoaxes of fantastically imagined claims fooling their audiences. Yet, when it comes to , the Motley Fool doesn’t play hoaxes when it comes to how important keeping records is to our lives.
