Be careful on April 1 for a prank might just be played on you. All Fool’s Day is alive and kicking. As older individuals sort of “retire” from playing pranks and hoaxes, there is the younger set who is more than willing to continue the tradition.
The history of April Fool’s Day is unclear. There are various stories regarding the origin of the event and the most probable one has something to do with the hop from the Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar. In the old Julian Calendar, New Year was celebrated starting March 25 and ended on April 1. When Pope Gregory XII ordered a new calendar in 1582, it was France’s King Charles IX who first adapted the new calendar thus New Year was moved from April 1 to January 1.
News back in the Middle Ages took “ages” to get from one place to another. More so from one country to another. It took years (centuries actually) for the rest of Europe and England to receive the news. There were some obstinate ones who refused to acknowledge the new calendar and therefore continued to celebrate the New Year on April 1. Thus these obstinate fools were called April Fools. These people were ridiculed and were the butt of jokes and were sent on “fool’s errands”.
By the 18th century, the tradition spread to England and Scotland and then much later, to the Colonies, including the United States. April Fool’s Day spread and developed into an international day for fun, jokes and hoaxes.
People try to outdo themselves each year. The joke could be simple pranks or elaborate hoaxes. Even the media have had their field day in regarding April Fool’s Day. One of the best pranks ever was done by the highly respected BBC in 1957. The news had something to do with the good harvest of spaghetti by Swiss farmers due to the elimination of the harmful spaghetti weevil. The news was accompanied by footage of Swiss farmers pulling spaghetti strands from the trees. A large number of viewers were reeled in by the hoax and many actually called the station and asked how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. BBC had an answer and it was “place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.” It was not documented if any fool actually followed the instructions.
What about Google? This powerful company has been “hoaxing” many internet denizens since 2000. Its first hoax was the GoogleMentalPlex. The “technology” claimed that there would be no need for a Google user to type what he wanted to search as it can read the user’s mind. A user had to look into a moving two-color pinwheel with these instructions:
- Remove hat and glasses.
- Peer into MentalPlex circle. DO NOT MOVE YOUR HEAD.
- Project mental image of what you want to find.
- Click or visualize clicking within the MentalPlex circle.
You bet! There were some very gullible ones who were pranked!
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