Thursday, March 30th, 2006 by Chris Martin“April 1st: This is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three-hundred and sixty-four.” - Mark Twain
Maybe you know that in the sixteenth century in France, the start of a New Year was on the first of April (Some documents said that the New Year was celebrated for 8 days, beginning on March 25 and this celebration culminated on April 1). Certainly, there was no “Happy New Year” of ABBA but people also celebrated the New Year in nearly the same way as we do nowadays with parties and dance into the late hours of the night. Suddenly in 1562 (under Charles IX), the new year fell on the first of January as Pope Gregory introduced a new calendar for the Christian world. It was a big change, however, some obstinate people did not accepted this change, or some others even did not know anything about the new calendar (you can figure out the reason when news traveled by foot on those days), so they continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1. Other people thought this was so ridiculous that they played tricks on them and call them “April fools.”
The word “April fool” or “Poisson d’Avril” (which means “April Fish”) has become very popular and the first of April turned to be a very special day of the year for tricks and pranks and making other people believe that something false is true. Let’s have a look at how people trick and prank on this day?
With the unlimited creativeness of human being, tricks and pranks perform in several ways from simple, such as “Hey dude, there is some mud on your face” to elaborate ones, such as setting roommate’s alarm clock back an hour. Whatever the prank is, the pranksters usually shout to their victims “April Fool!” at the end of a joke.
In France today, French children fool their friends by taping a “paper fish” to their friends’ backs. When those friends discover this trick, the pranksters yell “Poisson d’Avril!” In England, jokes are played only in the morning. Fools are called ‘gobs’ or ‘gobby’ and the victim of a joke is called a ‘noodle.’ It was considered bad luck to play a practical joke on someone after noon.
The news media has flavored April Fool’s Day with more humor and hilariousness. For instance, a couple of years ago, one of the most popular magazines for teen in Asia informed that Westlife - the super band in Ireland and the U.K - had died in a plane crash. Many teen girls went on a hunger strike with countless teardrops in 1 week until the next issue of the magazine said it was only a joke on April Fool’s Day. One another example, a British short film showed on April Fool’s Day was a fairly detailed documentary about “spaghetti farmers” and how they harvest their crop from the spaghetti trees. Of course, it was also a prank but in fact, there were many people believing in it.
One more April Fool’s day is soon coming. Have you had any plan to fool somebody on that “for - fun - only” observance? If you say no, I would suggest a funny and polite way: make a prank call to your buddies with your changed voice. Just download a software called “Voice Changer Software” from
www.audio4fun.com which helps change your voice from male to female or vice versus and imitate the voice of movie stars or famous singers. Imagine how funny your buddies’ face is when they receive that call from you!
And you must remain forever vigilant otherwise you may be the next April Fool! Moreover, do remember that not everybody feels interested in your prank. “You couldn’t fool your mother on the foolingest day of your life even if you had an electrified fooling machine.” - Homer Simpson.
About the Author
Chris Martin, Avnex’s copywriter, who has a profound interest in e-commerce, e-learning and home business. Contact him at
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