April Fool’s: A History

There are many possible explanations for the creation of April Fool’s Day. One possible example is the Greco-Roman festival Hilaria, celebrated on Mar. 25. The festival honors Cybele, a Greek Mother of Gods, and, according to Time Magazine, its celebrations include “parades, masquerades and jokes to celebrate the first day after the vernal equinox.”

Another possible origin is in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. There has been speculation about the line “32 March” and whether it was a joke (due to the fact that there is no Mar. 32), or if it was a misprint.

But the modern April Fool’s Day is a day for pranks, and some Hockaday students shared some of their previous pranks.

It’s Time to (Chica)Go

“When we were freshmen, we spent months hinting towards this prank. Like if someone would mention the cold, we’d agree and go ‘Yeah, we hate the cold,” and walk away and talk privately. And once I “accidentally” sent a picture of a house in Chicago to a group chat. So everyone was confused and asking me why I sent a picture of a house in Chicago. But on April Fool’s Day, we announced that we were moving to Chicago. This was believable, since our dads both work for airlines. People were coming up to us in the halls and crying, and I started crying. But we eventually confessed.”

-Sophie Isom and Eliza Parker, 11th grade

Fake Love

“When I was a freshman, I knew that a boy in my grade liked my friend, so I’d talk to him on the phone about her a lot. But on April Fool’s Day, I called him and told him that I liked him a lot, and he panicked. There was another boy in our grade who I knew liked me, and he said, ‘I don’t know how to respond, why don’t you talk to him instead?’ and I said, ‘I don’t think today is a good day to have serious conversations. No one is getting me right now.’ And he goes ‘Oh.’ and hangs up.”

-Abigail Spencer, 12th grade

Brace Yourselves

“One time in the fourth grade, I took my old wrist brace and wore it when we had to run the mile in P.E. and told my coach I couldn’t run because I broke my arm. But when everyone was finished running, I took it off and played the game afterwards.”

-Meredith Jones, 10th grade

Assassin’s Creed

“In the eighth grade, there was a fire drill, but I knew the fire was fake. So right when they said the grades could go back, I ran back to Sra. Maldonado’s room as fast as I could and hid under her desk.Right when she came back [to her desk] I jumped out. She said I was trying to assassinate her and sent me to Mrs. Kramer’s office. So it wasn’t a traditional April Fool’s prank, but no regrets.”

-Sarah Kate Feferman, 11th grade

Give Me A Hand

“So in the seventh grade, my family and I traveled to Uruguay over spring break. At the time, I was fascinated by sharks and I also loved pranking people, so obviously being at the beach with no other Americans presented itself as a perfect opportunity. On April Fool’s Day, I posted a picture on my Instagram of a hand with half of a cherry on the thumb with the caption, ‘Today was a terrible day, something tragic happened. I was swimming in the ocean in Uruguay and a shark attacked me. My friend pushed me towards the shark as she ran away, since it was shallow water. Because of this, a shark bit off half of my thumb.’ Everyone believed me, and I thought I was so funny so I obviously continued the lie by posting another picture of a Google image of hand surgery convincing people that they had to remove my big toe and sew it onto my thumb in the hospitals of Uruguay. I easily got over 100 comments in both pictures and not long after my parents started getting emails apologizing for my ‘loss’. One family, who we had not seen in over three years, offered to send help to Uruguay and that they were sorry about this tragic event and were thinking of me during this hard time. My mom simply responded with ‘Thank you, but Josie is great and we are having a great time. I am not sure what you are talking about.’ So finally I came clean the next day and I lost around 45 Instagram followers and got a lot of hate.”

-Josie Milisci, 11th grade

Ponette Kim – Staff Writer