By Karis Regamey
Today is April Fool’s Day- a day where you can play practical jokes on your friends, family and even people you don’t know, just for the fun of it. We have all heard of it, and I’m sure many of us have participated in an April Fool’s Day joke at one point or another but I, for one, had never thought about how April Fool’s Day or “All Fools Day” originated before now.
The history of April Fool’s Day is somewhat unknown. There are many theories but the most popular one revolves around the calendar. France adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582 which called for New Year’s Day to be celebrated January 1. According to popular belief, some people refused to accept the change and would continue their New Year’s celebrations until April first. Because of this, they were considered fools and were the butt of jokes and pranks.
Other theories suggest that various celebrations in history which emphasized merriment and tomfoolery were the precursors of April Fool’s Day.
Whatever the true origin may be, April Fool’s Day has become about having a little fun, albeit at the expense of someone else.
Here are some fun facts about April Fool’s Day:
The French refer to April 1 as “Poisson d’Avril” or April Fish. French children would stick a picture of a fish to the back of one of their schoolmates and call “Poisson d’Avril” when the prank was discovered.
- Source: www.cityfood.com
Probably one of the most well-known April Fool’s Day pranks in the media occurred in 1957. The BBC reported on its news program Panorama that the Swiss were experiencing a bumper spaghetti harvest due to good weather and the elimination of the damaging “spaghetti weevil”. The BBC showed staged footage of people plucking pasta off of tall trees. After this announcement the station received many calls from viewers asking how they could grow their own. To view the footage for yourself click here.
Another of the most famous pranks in history occurred in 1976. British astronomer and radio announcer Patrick Moore announced on the BBC that at 9:47 am there would be a rare alignment of Jupiter and Pluto which would cause the effects of gravity to be nullified. He encouraged people to jump at this time in order to feel weightless for a moment. The station received dozens of phone calls after 9:47 reporting that the experiment had worked.
So play a little joke and have a good laugh today- but you only have until noon! Happy April Fool’s!
- Source: happynewyeareve.com
