Not getting fooled is important on April 1, but so is putting the apostrophe in the proper place.
Happy April Fools’ Day! Or is it April Fool’s Day? Maybe it doesn’t even need an apostrophe at all …
As unofficial holidays go, perhaps the “St. Paddy’s” vs. “St. Patty’s” debate is only more prevalent. And there actually is a correct way to spell it.
It’s April Fools’ Day, with the apostrophe coming after the ‘s.’ It makes sense too, once you stop to consider that generally speaking, the pranks or hoaxes you are attempting on April 1 are intended to trick a whole bunch of people, not just a single victim. As the Wikipedia entry for today notes, “The jokes and their victims are called April fools.”
Also interesting: the genesis of April Fools’ Day dates all the way back to the 19th century, and Chaucer mentioned April 1 as a date for hijinks in The Canterbury Tales. So this is a tradition that’s been part of popular culture for a long time.
It’s also not a tradition that is limited to the U.S. or even North America. Many European countries recognize April 1 as a day devoted to humor, some of which even have more formal celebrations of it like parades, festivals and the like.
Interestingly, not even works of fiction can agree on the correct spelling of this pseudo-holiday. There have been movies with April Fools’ Day spelled both correctly and incorrectly, the latter of which is, to no one’s surprise, a cheesy slasher flick. There was also a 1993 novel that used the incorrect spelling.
In the end, it probably doesn’t matter how you decide to spell April Fools’ Day because everyone will know what you’re talking about either way. But if you enjoy being right, trust us and put that apostrophe at the end.