April Fool's DayPhoto:ShutterstockThere are several opinions in the world about where exactly the tradition of celebrating April 1st came from. According to one of them, April 1st was originally celebrated in many countries as the day of the spring solstice. Such holidays were celebrated cheerfully and joyfully in all nations. According to another version, April 1st is a kind of "Old New Year". Before Charles IX reformed the calendar in France from the Victorian to the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century, the New Year was celebrated not on January 1st, but at the end of March. Despite the changes in the calendar, some conservative people continued to celebrate New Year's week according to the old style. Others laughed and made fun of them, presented funny gifts and called them April fools. The first mass April Fools' prank took place in Moscow in 1703. Town criers walked the streets and invited everyone to come to the "unheard-of performance". There was no end to the spectators. And when the curtain opened at the appointed hour, everyone saw a banner on the stage with the inscription: "April Fools' Day, don't trust anyone!" Today, April Fools' Day is still celebrated with funny pranks and jokes on friends and colleagues. Children tell each other about white backs, students set their clocks an hour earlier, and adults bring each other to heart attacks with stories about a car towed from the side of the road. In any case, a joke that is not laughed at by the person being joked about is considered inappropriate for April Fools' Day.
