April Fool's Day

April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, enemies and neighbors, or sending them on fools' errands, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. The origins of this custom are complex and a matter of much debate. It is likely a relic of the once common festivities held on the vernal equinox, which began on 25 March, old New Year's Day, and ended on 2 April.

Though 1 April appears to have been observed as a general festival in Great Britain in antiquity, it was apparently not until the beginning of the 18th century that the making of April-fools was a common custom. In Scotland the custom was known as "hunting the gawk," i.e. the cuckoo, and April-fools were "April-gawks," the cuckoo being a term of contempt, as it is in many countries.

The origin of this traditions is possibly connected to the Persian Nowruz Festival. Nowruz, the Persian New Year festival, which starts on March 21^st, ends on Sizdah Bedar,its thirteenth day which corresponds to April First. As a Persian tradition, 13 is a sinister number, hence they also have the April Fools and mark it by saying a lie to one another. April Fools lies are known as Dorogh-e-Sizdah in Persian or Lie of the Thirteenth when translated to English. This Persian Tradition has been in practice for thousands of years as far as 536 BC. Thus, it can be assumed as one of the earliest orgins of April Fools.^[1]