Mic:

April 1 is widely known as April Fool’s Day, the day when friends prank each other and companies scramble to show off just how “fun” they can be.

But the foolish celebrations have a longer history than you’d expect. According to the Museum of Hoaxes, clear references to the holiday date back to at least the 1500s, when Flemish writer Eduard De Dene published a poem in 1561 about a nobleman who plays an April 1 prank on his servant.

And the references could date back even earlier. A line in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale by Chaucer referencing “Syn March began thritty dayes and two” — which could refer to the 32nd day of March, i.e. April 1 — has some speculating that the passage, written in 1392, could be the first reference to April Fool’s Day.

In the days before widespread internet, April Fools Day was kind of fun. Granted, I was much younger then. But now, it’s just tedious, lame, and unfunny.