Yeah yeah, ok, I know, lame April Fool’s joke, but I can dream can’t I? I don’t typically care about April Fool’s day at all, but I was so annoyed that my favorite nerd news outlet Slashdot was filled with nothing BUT lame April Fool’s stories that I had to rant just a little. Normally Slashdot will have a normal day of legitimate stories and sprinkle in a few legit-sounding joke stories amongst them so they seem remotely plausible. Today however they were all really dumb and obvious, with hardly a real story in the mix. I was disappointed. 🙂
I then, out of curiosity, looked up the history of April Fool’s Day. It seems to have originated with the conversion from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. The Julian calendar had the new year starting on or near April 1st, and the new Gregorian calendar (well, new in 1582) moved it to January 1st. Those who refused or resisted the calendar change were dubbed as foolish, and tricks were played upon them. This is apparently only conjecture however, as no historical evidence exists to support it. There are other potential sources for April Fool’s Day (or All Fool’s Day). Regardless, it’s all very silly.