Born on April 1
April Fools' Day
Play a kind joke today.
Next: April 1, 2027
Where it comes from
April Fools' Day, also called All Fools' Day, has been kept for centuries, but no one owns it and its true origins are unknown. One popular theory points to France, where the Edict of Roussillon of 1564 moved the start of the year from Easter to 1 January, so that people who clung to the old new year became the fools.
How it's celebrated
Friends play harmless practical jokes, send each other on fools' errands or point out shoelaces that are not untied, and a good prank ends with the cry 'April Fool'. In France children pin a paper fish to a friend's back, and the person fooled is a poisson d'avril, an 'April fish'.
Did you know
On 1 April 1957 the BBC's current-affairs programme Panorama showed a Swiss family harvesting spaghetti from trees, and hundreds of viewers called to ask how they could grow their own.
Read the full story of April Fools' Day
Star sign
Aries · March 21 – April 19 · Fire sign
First through the door: bold, quick to start and happiest with a challenge.