OGDEN -- April 1 as everyone knows is April Fool's Day.
Lesser known is that it's also Census Day, the day pinpointed by the U.S. Census Bureau's nationwide head count every 10 years. No foolin'.
"Who on earth came up with having April Fool's Day as the day of the census?" Robert Hunter quipped at the bureau's recent Spirit of Community Celebration in Ogden, one of many across the country to raise awareness of the 2010 census.
"Whoever thought of that should be put through the spanking tunnel," Hunter said, noting folks shouldn't think of the census as an April Fool's joke.
As head of the United Way of Northern Utah, Hunter was among dozens of business and community leaders attending the gathering to drum up support.
Actually the Census Day was pegged at April 1 long before the day became a national prank date, census workers said.
Calling the cross reference unfortunate, Pat Wicks said it's no one's fault.
The date was established as Census Day possibly a century ago or more, maybe even by the Founding Fathers, said Wicks, assistant manager for administration at the Ogden Census Office, 2263 Grant Ave.
April Fool's Day didn't come into popularity until around the 1930s, she said.
Census questionnaires and follow-up interviews will focus on numbers in households, residency and demographic questions as of April 1, 2010.
The nationwide census, tied to that date for untold decades, provides an important snapshot of the country every 10 years, officials said.
"It's pretty amazing that we have those snapshots going all the way back to the year 1790," said Wicks' boss Newell Wilson, referring to the date of the first national census.
The census guides decisions regarding $400 billion in federal appropriations and boundaries of congressional and legislative districts, as well as schools.
Wilson's office, which covers Weber, Davis, Morgan, Box Elder, Cache, Rich, Tooele and Summit counties, will begin the hiring of 1,000 temporary census takers in May.
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