Feast of Fools

It takes courage to make a fool of yourself.

— Charlie Chaplin

You can thank the French for April Fool’s Day.

They invented the Feast of Fools—the Festum Fatuorum—in the 12th century.

A one-day celebration, the Festum Fatuorum came about because the lower French clergy at the time—the curés, vicars, subdeacons, and choir masters—demanded their own feast day, separate from the ones already declared to honor priests and deacons; but the church refused to grant one.

Undaunted, the lower clergy created their own, a Christmastime celebration of buffoonery during which they played dice and gobbled sausages; dressed in mock robes and sang obscene hymns; and paraded the squares, drinking ale and performing burlesque acts. The church fathers were appalled: they condemned the yearly antics as "blasphemous" and "pagan" and, in the 15th century, banned them outright. But the antics continued until the Feast of Fools finally ceased to be seditious and became, more or less, a secular street festival, sometime during the 16th century.

Then, in that very same century, Pope Gregory shifted New Year's Day from April 1 to January 1. People who continued to celebrate New Year's on April 1—mostly county bumpkins—began to be called "April Fools" by the French. They were also made the butt of mean tricks, such as receiving an invitation to a nonexistent party, or having a donkey's tail secretly pinned on them. Pranking on April 1 soon became an annual ritual, reminiscent of the medieval lark, the Feast of Fools.

Pity the fool who never plays one. April 1st must drive him crazy.