Happy April Fools’ Day!
April Fools’ Day, celebrated each year on April 1, is a day of practical jokes. It’s a day that some people look forward to, planning the hoaxes down to the last detail. But some people dread April Fools’ Day. These people are usually the victims of the jokesters!
One of the first jokes children learn to pull is placing a rubber band around the lever that controls the kitchen sink sprayer, so that the victim is doused when they turn on the water. As this typically happens first thing in the morning as breakfast is being made, it serves as a forewarning of how the day is going to proceed!
These are family-friendly pranks. Care should be taken so that no one is hurt, physically or emotionally. April Fools’ jokes that have proven popular over the years:
- Cover a bar of soap in clear nail polish and let dry. Leave it by the sink or in the shower.
- Put food coloring in a carton of milk.
- Place small pieces of cellophane tape over the tv remote sensors.
- Freeze a bowl of cereal in milk the night before.
- The night before, fill your child’s juice glass with appropriate-colored gelatin and add a straw. Watch them try to drink it the next morning.
- If your children are heavy sleepers, switch their beds after they’ve fallen asleep so that they wake up in their sibling’s bed.
- Unroll toilet paper and write a message before rolling it back up again.
- Switch the bags inside two boxes of cereal.
Over the years, organizations have pulled April Fools’ Day pranks on the general public, with varying degrees of success. Many of these pranks have been documented at the Museum of Hoaxes
Greeting Card Universe April Fools’ Day cards
Greeting Card Universe’s April Fools’ Day Pinterest Board
April Fool’s Day Around the Globe
April Fool’s Day (also known as All Fool’s Day), observed on the 1st of April, is a lighthearted holiday celebrated with pranks and practical jokes in countries around the world.
The first of April, some do say
Is set apart for All Fool’s Day:
But why the people call it so
Nor I, nor they themselves, do know,
But on this day are people sent
On purpose for pure merriment.
—–Anonymous, Poor Robin’s Almanac, 1790
Get to know more April Fool’s Day by learning how different countries celebrate this fun holiday.
ROME: The actual origins of April Fool’s Day are shrouded in mystery. However, it is known that the ancient Roman festival of Hilaria (March 25) was celebrated in part by playing practical jokes on friends.
FRANCE & ITALY: April 1st is known as Poisson d’avril in France and French-speaking Canada, and Pesce d’aprile in Italy (“April Fish”). The holiday is celebrated by taping a paper fish to a friend’s back, and then yelling, “April fish!” when the trick is discovered.
IRAN: On the thirteenth day of Norooz (Persian New Year) called Sizdah Bedar- which usually occurs on April 1st or 2nd – celebrants play pranks on one another. Because the practice goes back as far as 536 B.C., some historians consider it the origin of April Fool’s Day.
UNITED KINGDOM: In most of the UK (and the non-French speaking part of Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and Cyprus), tricks can only be played on April Fool’s Day until noon.
SCOTLAND: April Fool’s Day is called “Hunt the Gowk Day” – a gowk is a foolish person. Traditional pranks are played.
POLAND: On Prima Aprilus (April 1st), apart from individual joke playing and avoiding serious activities, media such as newspapers traditionally publish false news stories.
SWEDEN & DENMARK: Both countries celebrate April Fool’s Day in the usual way, but they also celebrate May 1st as a kind of additional day for pranking and jokes.
UNITED STATES: While today, April Fool’s Day is celebrated with joking, pranks, tricks, and hoaxes, in early America our Founding Fathers delighted in sending friends and family on a “fool’s errand” by asking them to fetch things that don’t exist such as sweet vinegar or sending them on a fruitless undertaking.
April Fool’s Day is also celebrated in the Netherlands, South Korea, Germany, Russia, and Japan.
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