Unfortunately, there is no twisted or dark history behind this prank-filled celebration for me to serve you on a platter. However, contrary to my assumptions and experience on Nigerian Twitter, fooling has been in existence for centuries, and it is my pleasure to share why April 1st is dedicated to it, along with tidbits of fun facts.

April Fools’ Day Remains A Mystery Unsolved

Unlike the previous articles I’ve written that strongly point to a specific historical source, April Fools’ Day, true to its concept, plays us for fools by keeping its origin a secret from us. Amidst the many theories, historians commonly debate three, and leading this charge is King Charles IX of France.

The Gregorian Calendar Change Had People Lost In Time

In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII introduced the Gregorian calendar – the one currently in use – to replace the Julian calendar because of discrepancies such as the calendar drift (went off by 11 minutes annually) and international synchronization. Charles IX pulled France into this calendar change that standardized January 1st as New Year's instead of late March/ April 1st, but not every Frenchman was quick on the uptake. Some of them were just stubborn, refusing to accept change, and went ahead celebrating New Year's in April, earning the title of April Fools.

Poisson d’Avril Became A Day For Fools

Otherwise known as April Fish Day, Poisson d’Avril is a widely celebrated holiday in France on the 1st of April. While I could not find a historical timestamp to validate when this holiday began, the term “April Fish” was mentioned in a poem written by Eloy D’Amerval in 1508. In that poem, fish is a metaphor for foolish people, which aligns with a common fishing method: using bait to catch. Nowadays, pranksters paste a paper fish on their victim’s back and shout April Fish when caught. One thing is evident: Just as worms are to fish, so are pranks to fools on April 1st.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Nun’s Priest Tale

You know that joy you feel when you begin to see familiar names in research? That’s what seeing Geoffrey Chaucer does to me. A poem of his was an important piece of the puzzle in the discovery of the true history of Valentine, and Nun’s Priest Tale, another of his poems, is one of the three contending theories. Published circa 1390, Chaucer tells the story of the chicken and the fox trying to fool each other. The pranks in this poem took place 32 days after March began, and with the help of some quick maths ( I believe you know how many days there are in March), the date was calculated to be the 1st of April. Not many scholars subscribe to this take, claiming that typos were introduced during translation.

Tomfoolery Isn’t Accepted For No Reason

The Holiday Is a Celebration of The Changeover In Seasons

Not many days exist when people get away with playing pranks. In fact, I can only think of two: April Fools’ Day and Halloween. Heavily quoted American Folklorist Alan Dundes thinks the same, and he does not believe it is coincidental in the slightest. You see, the end of March marks the end of winter, and April brings a brand-new season. It’s a transition period where the weather is totally unpredictable. Halloween is the same, marking the shift from Fall to Winter. Dundes suggests these holidays are our way of celebrating the absurdity of changing seasons.

Fun fact: The unpredictability of the weather in April made people look like fools, as if the weather was playing pranks on them. Yet another theoretical origin of April Fools.

The Historical April Fools’ Day Tradition I Found The Funniest

I came across several expressions and pranks that have occurred over the years, but the one that seems the most relatable and funny is the one practiced in the North of England and Scotland called Huntingowk day. For this, an unsuspecting fellow is given a letter to deliver to somewhere within the neighborhood, usually about a mile away. The fun part is that the letter contains instructions to the recipient to lead the messenger on a wild goose chase with a straight face. So until the messenger figures out he is being played for a fool, his legs will continue to walk.

It reminds me of this prank – I believe it is native to the Yorubas – where your parents would send you to a friend to ask for this particular thing. The thing was like a code between elders. It doesn’t actually exist, but once heard, the memo is received. Unless one of the elders takes pity on you and sends you back home, you’d be left wandering around for something that doesn’t even exist. I don’t think they even needed April 1st for this; they just did it for the plot.

Others include the Mexican tradition, where if an item is borrowed on April Fools ' Day, they are not obligated to return it, and the New Zealand one, where any child who commits tomfoolery beyond 12 noon is considered to be the larger fool. I would hate to be party to the former.

Relax and Unwind. Be The Fool Sometimes

Whether it’s the French with their paper fish, the Scots on their wild goose chases, or even my own parents with their clever little codes, it’s clear that we’ve found endless ways to celebrate this day of playful trickery. Unfortunately, this article is coming a few hours beyond schedule, so advising you to enjoy and play pranks at this time would paint no one else but you as the fool. I do hope you enjoyed this year’s celebration and were party to a prank or two, but you’d have to wait till next year, or maybe Halloween, to do this again, okay?

The Genesis of Black History Month

The 13th Amendment may have been the legal saviour of slaves in the mid-1800s, but the true freedom of black people had to be fought for. Half a century later, more than 1500 black people had political positions, several black colleges and universities were founded, and black innovators were making waves. Achievements like these were what spurred Carter G. Woodson, the second African-American to earn a PhD in History and in history, to form the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) with four others. With the aid of this association and his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, he started the Negro History and Literature Week in 1924 and announced the first Negro History Week via a press release in February 1926.

February being the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, great Americans who were celebrated for their contributions to the race, Woodson’s idea was a huge success. Schools formed Negro History clubs, the Negro History bulletin was published, and the week even had its annual theme. However, one week of Black History annually was not enough for Woodson, and, soon enough, for most Black people. In 1976, the association, after a little prodding from its younger intellectuals, pulled some strings and officially transformed Negro History Week to Black History Month. The association also changed its name to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). The change from Negro to Black wasn’t a random fix; it was a deeper look into identities, a key factor in determining who should participate in the commemorations.

The Invention of The Negro

The term “Negro” came, surprisingly, from the Spanish and Portuguese. During their crossing to India in the 15th century, they came across the Bantu people (a diverse collection of sub-Saharan Africans of different ethnicities) and called them Negro, derived from the Latin word niger, meaning black.

Soon enough, it became the identifier for people of African descent during the transatlantic slave trade era, ergo, slaves. Section 4 of the Negro Law of South Carolina, written by Jean Belton O’Neall in 1848, defines negro for clarity:

“The term negro is confined to slave Africans (the ancient Berbers) and their descendants. It does not embrace the free inhabitants of Africa, such as the Egyptians, Moors, or the negro Asiatics, such as the Lascars.”

Europeans erased the distinct ethnicities of enslaved Africans and grouped them into a single race by their shared phenotype, the color of their skin. And to the African Americans of the 18th and 19th centuries, negro was the most polite way to identify them in comparison to coloured and black. To them, it was normal. Even W.E.B. Du Bois, the only black person to earn a PhD before Woodson, and Woodson himself used it in their books, with an uppercase “N” as a show of pride. No one found an issue with it until the early 1960s, around the time Martin Luther King gave his famous speech. Since then, the term negro fell off and was replaced with terms like African-American, Afro-American, and Black.

Is The Commemoration For For Everyone With African Roots or Just Those That Survived The Draught of Slavery In America?

With all this information, Black History Month can be simplified as a month dedicated to celebrating the progress and achievements of enslaved Africans and their descendants. So no, it shouldn’t be limited to African-Americans. In fact, about 95% of enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil and The Carribeans, leaving 5% in the United States. It wouldn’t be wrong for people in these countries to celebrate it. Also, Carter G. Woodson didn’t believe in honoring a select few.

“Rather than focusing on two men, the black community, he believed, should focus on the countless black men and women who had contributed to the advance of human civilization.” – Daryl Michael Scott, ASALH

If Woodson were alive, he would be ecstatic at the progress his association has made. However, strictly speaking, Africans and Black Immigrants (Africans in diaspora) should not be celebrating Black History Month. Unlike Black people, Africans and Black Immigrants are aware of their ethnicity. They were not robbed of their origin and are not necessarily subject to the social construct of race. But speaking strictly is not exactly the way of the world, and most things are never black or white.

The Achievements of Black People Are Celebrated For A Reason, A Reason We All Share

There’ll always be a difference between the descendants of the enslaved, the immigrants, and the pure Africans. But, at the end of the day, they all have African roots and that “Black DNA.” This common background means that despite our differences, all Black people deal with the same reality: the ongoing issue of white supremacy. While it's not as blatant as it was during the slave trade, that systemic bias is still very much alive. It takes a lot of grit, energy, and passion to break through and succeed in fields where white people hold most of the power, and making sure those breakthroughs and achievements are not buried or misinterpreted is the reason Black History Month exists. In a world where people of color are often sold short and downplayed, only they can shine a light on their achievements and contributions to the advancement of civilization.

The Genesis of Black History Month

The 13th Amendment may have been the legal saviour of slaves in the mid-1800s, but the true freedom of black people had to be fought for. Half a century later, more than 1500 black people had political positions, several black colleges and universities were founded, and black innovators were making waves. Achievements like these were what spurred Carter G. Woodson, the second African-American to earn a PhD in History and in history, to form the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History (ASNLH) with four others. With the aid of this association and his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, he started the Negro History and Literature Week in 1924 and announced the first Negro History Week via a press release in February 1926.

February being the birth month of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, great Americans who were celebrated for their contributions to the race, Woodson’s idea was a huge success. Schools formed Negro History clubs, the Negro History bulletin was published, and the week even had its annual theme. However, one week of Black History annually was not enough for Woodson, and, soon enough, for most Black people. In 1976, the association, after a little prodding from its younger intellectuals, pulled some strings and officially transformed Negro History Week to Black History Month. The association also changed its name to the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). The change from Negro to Black wasn’t a random fix; it was a deeper look into identities, a key factor in determining who should participate in the commemorations.

The Invention of The Negro

The term “Negro” came, surprisingly, from the Spanish and Portuguese. During their crossing to India in the 15th century, they came across the Bantu people (a diverse collection of sub-Saharan Africans of different ethnicities) and called them Negro, derived from the Latin word niger, meaning black.

Soon enough, it became the identifier for people of African descent during the transatlantic slave trade era, ergo, slaves. Section 4 of the Negro Law of South Carolina, written by Jean Belton O’Neall in 1848, defines negro for clarity:

“The term negro is confined to slave Africans (the ancient Berbers) and their descendants. It does not embrace the free inhabitants of Africa, such as the Egyptians, Moors, or the negro Asiatics, such as the Lascars.”

Europeans erased the distinct ethnicities of enslaved Africans and grouped them into a single race by their shared phenotype, the color of their skin. And to the African Americans of the 18th and 19th centuries, negro was the most polite way to identify them in comparison to coloured and black. To them, it was normal. Even W.E.B. Du Bois, the only black person to earn a PhD before Woodson, and Woodson himself used it in their books, with an uppercase “N” as a show of pride. No one found an issue with it until the early 1960s, around the time Martin Luther King gave his famous speech. Since then, the term negro fell off and was replaced with terms like African-American, Afro-American, and Black.

Is The Commemoration For For Everyone With African Roots or Just Those That Survived The Draught of Slavery In America?

With all this information, Black History Month can be simplified as a month dedicated to celebrating the progress and achievements of enslaved Africans and their descendants. So no, it shouldn’t be limited to African-Americans. In fact, about 95% of enslaved Africans were taken to Brazil and The Carribeans, leaving 5% in the United States. It wouldn’t be wrong for people in these countries to celebrate it. Also, Carter G. Woodson didn’t believe in honoring a select few.

“Rather than focusing on two men, the black community, he believed, should focus on the countless black men and women who had contributed to the advance of human civilization.” – Daryl Michael Scott, ASALH

If Woodson were alive, he would be ecstatic at the progress his association has made. However, strictly speaking, Africans and Black Immigrants (Africans in diaspora) should not be celebrating Black History Month. Unlike Black people, Africans and Black Immigrants are aware of their ethnicity. They were not robbed of their origin and are not necessarily subject to the social construct of race. But speaking strictly is not exactly the way of the world, and most things are never black or white.

The Achievements of Black People Are Celebrated For A Reason, A Reason We All Share

There’ll always be a difference between the descendants of the enslaved, the immigrants, and the pure Africans. But, at the end of the day, they all have African roots and that “Black DNA.” This common background means that despite our differences, all Black people deal with the same reality: the ongoing issue of white supremacy. While it's not as blatant as it was during the slave trade, that systemic bias is still very much alive. It takes a lot of grit, energy, and passion to break through and succeed in fields where white people hold most of the power, and making sure those breakthroughs and achievements are not buried or misinterpreted is the reason Black History Month exists. In a world where people of color are often sold short and downplayed, only they can shine a light on their achievements and contributions to the advancement of civilization.

St. Valentine lived in the 3rd century AD, perilous times for followers of Christ. Claudius Gothicus, the saviour of Rome in its darkest hours, also rose to the position of emperor during this period, reigning for two years (267 - 269 AD). He had a military mindset, ready to do anything for the progress of the empire, and banning marriages was one of them. To Claudius, single men made better soldiers, and better soldiers won wars. Still, love triumphs all, and St. Valentine was its instrument, smuggling vows to young lovers. This crime eventually reached the emperor’s ears, and he had St. Valentine seized and placed under the custody of a pagan jailer named Aurelius, whom the saint immediately sought to convert.

Like most skeptics, Aurelius required a miracle to believe in the divine, a miracle that manifested in his daughter through St. Valentine. This led to the immediate conversion of his entire household – over fifty people. Fury consumed Claudius. He demanded not only the erasure of Aurelius’s household, but also the beating and beheading of St. Valentine. Before his execution on the 14th of February, St. Valentine purportedly sent a final note to Julia, signing with “From your Valentine.” This may have birthed the current card-gifting tradition, but is this legend the actual root of the holiday, or is there another lore?

St. Valentine’s tombstone on the Via Flaminia in Rome and his records in the Acta Sanctorum anchor his legend in history, yet it tells the story of a saint, not a sweetheart. In fact, two Valentines supposedly existed at the same time (a priest in Rome and a bishop in Terni) and they died the same way, for the love of God, not romance. The romantic spark associated with February 14th didn't actually ignite until Geoffrey Chaucer picked up his pen in the 1300s. In those 700 lines of his dream-vision poem, The Parlement of Foules, Geoffrey reframed St. Valentine’s Day with one line:

“For this was on Saint Valentine’s day, When every fowl comes there his mate to take…”

Chaucer’s link to romance was no coincidence; it was an echo of the past. The mate-finding ritual mirrors the traditions of Lupercalia, a Roman festival held on the 15th of February.

Lupercalia originated from the twins Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. Like the biblical Moses, they drifted across a river to avoid certain death at the hands of greedy and fearful rulers. But, unlike Moses, a she-wolf named Lupa saved and nursed them in the Lupercal cave. Years later, they founded Rome on that very land and created the festival Lupercalia in honor of Lupa. Despite such an honorable origin, Lupercalia was a brutish festival that involved nude, or almost nude, priests called Luperci, animal sacrifices, and the random whipping of people to ward off evil spirits and boost fertility in women.

A mating ceremony was also rumored to have taken place during this festival, where men would pick a woman’s name at random from a jar and spend the entire festival with them. Depending on the chemistry between the temporary couples, the match could either end after the festival or become a lifelong commitment.

The ceremony links up with Chaucer’s quote, but how does it connect to St. Valentine’s Day? Well, such brutishness was bound to lose against evolution, and Pope Gelasius abolished it in the 5th century, replacing it with Candlemas (Feast of the Purification), which was on the 14th of February. Candlemas was later moved to the 2nd of the same month, but St. Valentine’s Day somehow inherited the purification and fertility associations. Chaucer’s poem, along with some of Shakespeare’s works, rebranded it as a day of love, and industrialization and commercialization dressed up the holiday as we now know it.

Ultimately, the St. Valentine's Day celebration is a holiday stitched together by martyrdoms, Roman festivals, and early English literature. Yet somehow, only the martyrdom part, and not even all of it, is recounted to the masses. The tales of Lupercalia are as much a legend as St. Valentine, and even appear more connected to the holiday than the latter, but it has been buried, passing on a romantic, vanilla version of events. Why? Because the truth is bad for business.

The average martyr is not a compelling enough reason to get chocolates and flower bouquets wrapped in red and white, and whipping people to ward off evil spirits is a difficult image to market to the masses. By accepting St. Valentine as a patron of love, the chaotic history becomes transformed into a comfortable lovey-dovey legend that promotes displays of love. Corporate greed commercializes that legend, people buy into it, and everyone is content. This proves that the holiday is more about maintaining a beautiful and lucrative illusion than honouring the man.