At least since the 16th century, the first day of April has traditionally been a day of levity and tomfoolery. You can read all about it – here – from the folks at History.com. Or just read the relevant excerpt below.
Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582. That’s when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent. People who were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year had moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it during the last week of March through April 1 became the butt of jokes and hoaxes. These pranks included having paper fish placed on their backs and being referred to as poisson d’avril (April fish). That was the term used to symbolize a young, “easily hooked” or gullible person.
Let me point out that the Black Death (or Bubonic Plague – 1347 to 1351) preceded April Fools’ Day by more than 2 centuries. So we don’t exactly have a precedent for handling how to practice levity in times of pandemic. Still, I’m convinced that keeping one’s sense of humor in times of trial is a trait with distinct evolutionary advantages. So, go ahead and pull a fast one, all you pranksters. But you might want to hold off on placing that paper fish on your neighbor’s back unless you’ve got a six-foot-pole handy: Just sayin’.
Practice social distancing!
And in the interest of taking the long view, some bonus humor:
Last but not least, for those with ties to Chicago, enjoy the mayor memes here.