SPLASH! You just walked into a room, minding your own business, and all of a sudden, you’re suddenly drenched in water. Laughter coming from all corners of the room, and when you sit down, a loud farting noise rips through the air. A whoopee cushion! And all together, everyone in the room shouts “April Fools’!”

Today is April 1st - April Fools’ Day, a day for many pranksters from all over the world trying their hand into making the most elaborate of pranks possible. Some are amazing and leave many laughing for a long time; others go to farther extents and end up embarrassing the person in front of countless others.

Regardless of such, though, how DID this day come about? How come thousands of young (and old) people do so many pranks and why? What is April Fools’ Day?

Well, according to several online articles, there’s a couple of theories historians are trying to piece together. Some speculate that April Fools’ Day came about in the 1500s, when France wanted to switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar; the Julian calendar was a couple days behind the Gregorian calendar, the one we adopt in our way of life today.

The Julian calendar celebrated New Year’s Eve on March 31st, and April 1st would be the following New Year’s Day. However, since the Gregorian calendar started the new year on January 1st, what we have now, people were too slow to recognize the news, and many of the locals began to prank them in various ways. Ever since then, some historians say, it’s been apart of our lives!

There is also several other speculations. One of these is that April Fools’ Day was linked to festivals in Ancient Rome called Hilaria, where people dressed up in disguises to fool others. Another speculation is that April 1st is tied to the vernal equinox, and how Mother Nature seemed to “fool” others with wacky, unpredictable weather.

Yet, there is also another prediction. I conducted an interview with Ned the Kick Me Guy, and he says that “I just wanted to put signs on people’s back that says kick me, and April Fool’s Day came to be.” There was also reports that dinosaurs back in the prehistoric times pranked each other when one of them sent a giant meteor from outer space to crash into the earth. There are many claims, as well, that Bill Nye conducted a scientific experiment every single year to have people prank each other, with each year wackier than the last.

...April Fool’s! At least on that last paragraph.