A friend of mine wrote:

I’ve never been able to decide for certain whether it’s “April Fool’s Day” (i.e., a day belonging to a fool or fools) or “April Fools Day” (i.e., a day celebrating all the fools in the world).* What’s your opinion?

I confess I’d never really given it much thought. It’s not a “holiday” I particularly celebrate. I don’t do jokes of any type very well. It’s not that I can’t be funny or have no sense of humor. But there’s something about the planning and execution or delivery that makes it the wrong vehicle for my humor.** Some people can do jokes and pranks; I can not. Not my spiritual gift.

Anyway, it’s never come up in anything I’ve worked on, either, so … Let’s do the research, shall we? Thank goodness for the Internet.

Grammarist tells us it’s “officially called April Fools’ Day in the United States. Each word of the title is capitalized and the fool is plural possessive” while “the singular fool’s is listed as a variant.” (Not sure where that “officially” comes from; surely Grammarist doesn’t mean to imply the US government.***) The article goes on to note that not all American dictionaries are in agreement—some list April Fool’s Day as the main entry. (I use Merriam-Webster Collegiate for professional reasons, which prefers Fools’ and remarks “or less commonly April Fool’s Day.”)

Writing Explained actually breaks out some dictionary listings, concluding that both variations are acceptable, but notes “AP Style and Chicago Style both call for the use of April Fools’ Day when writing the holiday in text.”

So—question answered: April Fools’ Day it is.

But what is April Fools’ Day? That’s the only fun left in this question, and now I’m really stretchin’, y’all. Because no one really knows. You can read a variety of theories in Wikipedia and elsewhere, but there’s no one story more plausible than any other. It probably originated in the Middle Ages; it involves jokes or pranks played on the unsuspecting. I grew up in a family with a great sense of humor and lots of laughter, but we weren’t pranksters, so I’m no good at April fooling.**** However, I saw a fabulous April Fools’ prank play out on a friend’s Facebook page last year, so I’ll share it with you.*****

Here’s the setup. My friend is an executive at a publishing company, and has been as long as I’ve known him, more than twenty years. He’s a reader, and he loves bringing good books to market. He is a casual guy, definitely low maintenance, easygoing. He and his wife live in a land-locked state, so when they take a vacation, it’s invariably to the beach.

So last April, a photo of the front door and window of a small but clearly well-loved and much used bookshop, appeared on my friend’s timeline. The caption read: “Excited to be assuming ownership of this beachfront store today. Flip-flops, shorts & bestsellers, baby! [Wife’s name] is working on forwarding address.”

And we all believed him. 🙂

* Lordy, we could be here all day, right?
** I can’t dance either.
*** Which at this writing is pretty much all fools all the time.
**** I can’t tell a joke worth a darn, either.
***** For your amusement, here are some other successful (or not) April Fools’ Day pranks from the Telegraph and USA Today.

Tweet: Who are you calling an April Fool?
Tweet: Some people can do jokes and pranks; I can not. Not my spiritual gift.