All Fool’s Eve

All Fool’s Eve was first started in the 12th century at the court of King Gustaf in Latvia. Unable to decide which jester he liked the most he created a night of competition for the fools in the eve of March 31 which became known as All Fool’s Eve. All the competitors were given white conical hats which were called “dunche” hats from which the English dunce cap is descended.

The competition was harder to judge than King Gustaf had anticipated. The annual competition was likely to run on late into the night until morning. April 1st began to be known as Fool’s Day.

Among the commoners, who couldn’t afford fools, it became popular to make their own fools by trickery and earning a good laugh when successful. It slowly became common to trick victims early in the morning of April 1st when they were still half asleep. Thus, the majority came to think of April Fools Day as the real event and as monarchies slowly fell into disfavour All Fool’s Eve was pretty much forgotten.

For more information on All Fool’s Eve visit the website: allfoolseve.com .