The origins of April Fool’s Day are disputed, with some saying it dates back to the time of Chaucer in the 14th century. What is clear is that there is evidence stretching back to at least the 16th century of 1 April being a day marked with practical jokes.
Many of our ancestors would have taken part in this over the years. This day of pranks is still observed across Europe, with various customs practised across the continent at the beginning of each April. Even within the UK, however, there have historically been differences in how our ancestors spent the day.
In Scotland, for example, April Fools’ Day was originally called ‘Huntigowk (or Huntegowk) Day’ and was celebrated on the first two days of the month. The name is a corruption of ‘hunt the gowk’. According to the Dictionaries of the Scots language, ‘gowk’ can mean both cuckoo and ‘To gaze, to stare idly or foolishly’. And before 1700, it was used to mean a cuckoo, as well as a fool or simpleton.
The hunting part of the tradition is believed to come from a hunt for the cuckoo, which arrives in the UK in April, staying until June or July. As the birds would not have yet migrated by 1 April, the young people (usually schoolchildren or apprentices) who were led to the wood to search for them were on a fool’s errand in their hunt for the gowk.
Out of this developed the convention of asking someone to deliver a sealed message, asking for help. The message would read, ‘Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile.’ Each person receiving the message would then send another ‘fool’ on a futile errand or pointless search (often a mile away). This may have included telling someone they needed to tie their shoelace when it was not undone, or asking them to buy bread from a butcher.
Residents of the Western Isles marked the day with a gowk cake. The cake was usually eaten at the wedding of a man newly married that month, who had made himself an ‘April Gowk’. The following recipe appeared in an English newspaper, on page 5 of the Nottingham Journal of 1 April 1937.
Gowk Cake
1lb. Flour, ½ lb butter, 1lb. Currants, 1/2lb. Raisins (sliced and chopped), 1lb. Sultanas, 6ozs. Angelica, 1/2lb. Brown sugar, 4 eggs, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1.2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda.
Rub the butter into the flour, then
add the other ingredients and last of
all the well-beaten eggs. Make into
a dough with about half a pint of
milk, taking care to see that it does
not become too moist. Bake slowly
for four hours and then ice. Remem-
ber, the fruit must be well dried and
floured to prevent it sinking to the
bottom of the cake.
Eating cake seems to be a far more pleasant way to spend April 1st than being the victim of a practical joke. If you decide to spend April Fool’s Day making a gowk cake, please do send us a photo of the finished bake.
Sources
- Iona & Peter Opie, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (Oxford University Press, 1960)
- Dictionaries of the Scots Language https://dsl.ac.uk/
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