I’m not an expert at this, and I had to finish it on my lunch break, so it’s rushed. Based on reading calendar history, a history plagued with major inconsistencies, April 1st (”April Fools Day”) has an oddly obscure past.
Background
Many ancient cultures celebrated different times for the “New Year,” including the beginning of spring (many Chinese still celebrate the Lunar calendar New Year, which is considered a spring festival). Some Christians celebrated this time as the New Year, coinciding with Easter, the resurrection of Jesus. This actually makes a lot of sense - spring is the time of rebirth and renewal, why shouldn’t it be the beginning of the New Year - instead of the way many countries now celebrate it in the dead of winter?
It’s not an easy question to answer. Worldwide there were a lot of different calendars in use until the last couple hundred years, including Britain celebrating March 25 as the official New Year until 1752, when they switched to the Gregorian calendar most countries use today.
A Foolish New Year?
So how did “April Fools” come about? The fair answer seems to be there is no consensus (see right-side bar), but it may have originated in 16th century France, reflecting the change from the older celebration of April 1st as the New Year to the adopted Gregorian calendar’s January 1st. People who either didn’t hear the news, or refused to go along with the changed date, got teased as ‘fools’ and thus the tradition started.
From what little reading I’ve done, I can’t say that I feel confident with the accuracy of what I’ve written. What do I feel confident about? Pursuing the history of April Fools Day provides it own just rewards 
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