NOTICE TO CUSTOMERS - US POST OFFICE RENSSELAER, NY 04-01-10
VIA WIKIPEDIA: All Fools' Day
Origins: In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392), the "Nun's Priest's Tale" is set "Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two" Chaucer probably meant 32 days after March, i.e. May 2, the anniversary of the engagement of King RichardII of England to Anne of Bohemia, which took place in 1381. However, readers apparently misunderstood this to mean "March 32," i.e April 1. In 1508, a French poet referred to a "poisson dâ avril" (April fool, literally "April fish"). In 1539, Flemish poet Eduard de Dene wrote of a nobleman who sent his servants on foolish errands on April 1. In 1686, John Aubrey referred to the holiday as "Fooles Holy Day". On April 1, 1698, people were tricked into going to the Tower of London to "see Lions washed."