April Fools Day

by Claire Powell and Dave Collett What is April Fools Day and what are its origins? It is commonly believed that in medieval France, New Year was celebrated on 1 April. Then in 1562, Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world, changing New Year to 1 January. With no modern communications, news travelled slowly and new ideas were often questioned. Many people did not hear of the change, others chose to ignore it, while some merely forgot. These people were called fools. Invitations to non-existent New Year parties were sent and other practical jokes were played. This jesting evolved over time into a tradition of playing pranks on 1 April. The custom eventually spread to England and Scotland, and it was later transported across the Atlantic to the American colonies of the English and the French. April Fools Day has now developed into an international festival of fun, with different nationalities celebrating the day in a special way. In France and Italy, if someone plays a trick on you, you are the fish of April. By the month of April fish have only just hatched and are therefore easy to catch. Children stick paper fish to their friends backs and chocolate fish are found in the shops. In Scotland, April Fools Day lasts for two days! The second day is called Taily Day and tricks on this day involve the bottom (or the tail in informal speech). Often a sign saying kick me is stuck onto someones back without them knowing. In Spain and Mexico, similar celebrations take place on 28 December. The day is the Feast of the Holy Innocents. Originally, the day was a sad remembrance of the slaughter of the innocent children by Herod in his search for the baby Jesus. It eventually changed to a lighter commemoration of innocence involving pranks and trickery. Today, Americans and the British play small tricks on friends and strangers alike on 1 April. A common trick is to point to a friend's shoe and say Your shoelace is untied. When they look down, they are laughed at. Schoolchildren might tell a friend that school has been cancelled. A bag of flour might be balanced on the top of a door so that when the victim opens the door, the flour empties over their head. Sometimes the media get involved. Once, a British short film was shown on April Fools Day about spaghetti farmers and how they harvest their crop from spaghetti trees! Most April Fool jokes are in good fun and not meant to harm anyone. The best trick is the one where everyone laughs. Source: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/april-fools-day

Malisa I love April Fools Day. It can be really good fun. I love playing tricks on people and I dont mind if people play tricks on me. Its one day of the year you can be really silly and have a laugh and its okay. You have to be quite sensible for the other 364 days of the year, so I look forward to April 1st. Johnny I dont like April Fools Day. It makes me a bit nervous. I keep thinking someone is about to play a trick on me. When twelve oclock passes I feel quite relieved that its finished for another year! Phil When I was at school April Fools Day was always good fun. We played tricks on each other and sometimes on the teacher. In fact, one year one of the boys at school put a bucket of water on top of the door and when the chemistry teacher came in he got very wet! It was funny, but the boy got in big trouble! Louise April Fools Day is a great idea. Its easy to forget the actual date and I always believe everything I read in the newspapers or watch on the TV news. I usually believe the big national hoaxes and it always makes me laugh afterwards. Its good to remind us that maybe we shouldnt always believe everything we hear in the news. Clare April Fools Day is fun when youre young. I remember putting a plastic fried egg on my Dads plate for breakfast as a trick. He decided to cut it up and pretend to eat it! Now I think some of the tricks are a bit silly and people can be a bit cruel playing tricks on their friends! Mark I hate April Fools Day. Last year people at work changed the sugar for salt so we all put salt in our coffee! Then some joker in the office decided he wanted a day off and he did something to the computers so they wouldnt work. It just wasnt funny! I had lots to do and we all had to stop working and solve the problem.

In 1998 Burger King published an advert in the magazine USA Today offering new Lefthanded Whoppas for the 32 million left-handed Americans! Thousands of customers ordered the new burger in the restaurants! (Burger King = a fast-food restaurant. Whoppas = the name of Burger Kings most famous hamburger) In 1976 a very famous British astronomer told radio listeners that at 9.47am the earth was going to experience a feeling of less gravity. He said that Jupiter and Pluto would cross and if listeners jumped in the air at exactly 9.47am they would feel the sensation of having no gravity! Hundreds of listeners phoned the radio to say they had jumped and floated in the air! In Sweden in 1962 they had one television channel and all TV was in black and white. A scientist told viewers that they would see the TV in colour is they put a nylon stocking over the screen. (Stockings = meia-cala) In 1999 a music website claimed that Britney Spears had lied about her age. They said she was 28, not 17. Hundreds of people phoned her music label to ask how old Britney really was. In 1957 a very serious documentary programme on the BBC reported that there were spaghetti trees in Switzerland. They said it was an excellent place to grow spaghetti! Hundreds of viewers phoned the BBC to ask where they could buy spaghetti trees. In 1949 a radio presenter in New Zealand told listeners that there were millions of wasps coming to invade. He told viewers to wear their socks over their trousers and to put honey on their doors. Millions of listeners believed him! (Wasps = a flying insect that can sting you; marimbondo; vespa) Last year in the UK a childrens news programme said that scientists had invented a Brain Band. It was a coloured head band that you put on your head and it helped to make you more intelligent! On an on-line poll, 47% of the children who heard the news wanted to buy a brain band! (Poll = a kind of vote) In the night of March 31st 1989 hundreds of Londoners phoned the police to report an alien spacecraft they had seen in the sky. In fact it was a hoax and it was a hot air balloon that looked like a spacecraft. A British newspaper printed an article saying that the European Union had decided to ban April Fools Day! It was only a hoax. A zoo in Japan said that they had a giant penguin that was 165cm tall and weighed 80

kilograms! In fact it was a man dressed up in a penguin suit.