April Fools' Day: Origins and Celebration Around the World
Practical jokers, pranksters, and tricksters the world over enjoy the one day in the year when they can indulge in the activity they love most to do: pulling pranks on the unsuspecting. April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day is celebrated every April 1st of the year and has its beginnings in France during the sixteenth century when New Year's Day was moved to January 1 from April 1 at the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. Those who persisted in celebrated the New Year on April 1 and were called April Fools. Other people played tricks on them.
The celebration in France was called "Poisson d'Avril," and children played a prank on their friends by sticking paper fish on their backs. When the "fool" finds out, the trickster yells "Poisson d'Avril."
April Fools' in Canada and England is celebrated only till noon of April 1st and those who play pranks beyond that time are then referred to as the fools.
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In Scotland, April Fools' is celebrated for two days and the "fools" are called "gowks" meaning "cuckoo birds." The second day, Taily Day, involves "backside pranks" thought to be the beginnings of the "kick me" signs.
Over the years, some unforgettable pranks have made their mark. One such prank was run by BBC in the 1950s, when they reported on the spaghetti harvest which talked of spaghetti growing on trees. Another BBC prank in 2008 involved a video clip of flying penguins for a series entitled "Miracles of Evolution" which the presenter describes as an escape made by the penguins to escape the cold Antarctic weather, by flying to tropical South America. In 1996, The Taco Bell company run an ad in a newspaper that claimed they had bought the Liberty Bell, and that they would be renaming their company "Taco Liberty Bell."
