We all like to have a laugh once in a
while I know I do however some enjoy it
more than others one of the ways of
raising a titter is to play a trick on
someone or to prank someone into
believing something that is not true or
real fortunately for those who enjoy
playing the occasional prank or hoax on
others there is a special day put aside
for just such an event of course I'm
talking about April Fool's Day
April Fool's Day occurs each year on the
first day of April on this day people
will play tricks and pull pranks on each
other for fun most of the pranks are
harmless and cause no real upset while
some create anger outrage and even mass
hysteria there have been some rather
adventurous pranks played on the general
public over the years for example in
1980 the BBC reported that the four
clock faces on the famous Big Ben clock
tower would be replaced by digital
numeral readouts many people call in to
complain before it was revealed that the
whole thing was a big hoax in 1978 a
wealthy adventurer returned from
Antarctica to Australia towing a large
iceberg with the intention of selling
chunks of the ice to locals this turned
out to be an elaborate hoax in 1998 the
fast food chain Burger King released an
advertising campaign to promote a new
product the left-handed hamburger
amazingly thousands of people fell for
the prank by showing up at burger
outlets asking for one of the
left-handed meals in 1976 British
astronomer Patrick Moore announced on
BBC Radio that the planets Pluto and
Jupiter would align in such a way that
here on earth people would experience a
change in the Earth's gravitational pull
whilst jumping up and down amazingly the
BBC received calls from listeners
purporting to have floated around the
room in 1962 Swedish television viewers
we're told that if they stretched a pair
of ladies tights over their TV screens
the black and white picture would become
colour of course it was all a hoax
TV viewers in Sweden had to wait another
eight years before they could really see
broadcasts in colour so what are the
origins of April Fool's Day well it
depends on who you ask there are many
stories surrounding the reasons why we
play tricks on April 1st first ironically
most of the stories surrounding April Fool's day are made up
the first written reference of April Fool's Day appears in
Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
published in 1392 where a mix-up with
the wording of the dates refers to there
being 32 days in march another origin
albeit an unlikely one occurred in
France when the Gregorian calendar was
adopted in 1564 which meant that from
there on the new year would be
celebrated on January the first and not
at the end of March those who continued
to celebrate after the change on April
the first were labelled as fools other
theories are that the date refers to the
Roman festival of Hilaria or a revolt
against Christianity when an annual day
of chaos took place as a protest
organised by the worshippers of demigods
in all honesty it would be fair to say
that there is no definitive reason why
April Fool's Day really exists
April fools day is also known as All Fool's day
in some places to many people the act
of playing pranks and hoaxing others for
fun seems childish and infantile
however this has not stopped people from
fooling each other with their creative
shenanigans have you ever played an
April fool's joke on anyone?
have you ever been the victim of an April Fool's hoax?
did you fall for it?
in this instance tooth or for something means
that you were taken in or fooled by
the hoax or prank you were made to look
stupid you are made a sucker of you are
made to look a fool quite the April Fool if you will.
today's keywords prank to
play a trick or to fool someone with a
practical joke hoax a form of joke
where someone pretends that something
will or has happened instance the
occurrence of something or an example of
something occurring