Did you know that New Year’s Day used to celebrated on April 1, before it was moved to January 1 when the Gregorian Calendar was adopted during the reign of Pope Gregory XIII.
The April fool cultured is widely believed to have started in France, and the French call it “Poisson d’Avril.”
French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends’ backs.
Some people trace the history back to biblical times, Noah’s days to be precise sent a dove on 1 April to find dry land before waters subsided.
Some also propound that on 1st April, Jesus was sent from Pontius Pilate to Herod and back again. This journey was often considered to be an old expression of sending someone on a fool’s errand, thereby signifying that this could have been the origin of the essence of the April Fool’s Day.
Others hold to the believe that Fool’s day has its roots in the Roman Empire, an ancient Roman myth also tells the story of the God Pluto who abducted Proserpina, the Goddess of grain and harvest. Proserpina’s mother could only hear the voice of her daughter when she searched for her in the vast expense of the underworld. This fruitless search ended in vain and inspired the idea of a fool’s errand – giving birth to April Fool’s Day.
British folklore also said a 13th century King used to declare every road he walked as public property. Once on 1 April, he was planning to travel a particular part of a town in Gotham in Nottinghamshire. Upon hearing the king’s plans, people of the town refused him to enter their territory.
The king then sent armies to the town who were perplexed to find all people engaging in stupid activities such as drowning fish. The king upon hearing about the stupid activities declared the town too foolish to warrant punishment – thus giving rise to the idea that 1 April was a fool’s day.
The history of the event maybe surrounded with divergent claims but one thing that is its hallmark is the fact that it is the day of prank playing.
Below are two of the most memorable April Fool’s Day prank by corporate companies from 2013
Twitter jumped in on the April Fools’ Day bandwagon in 2013 to announce that they were shifting to a two-tiered service. Those who wanted to use their services for free could use Twttr, where they could tweet ONLY consonants. Those who paid $5/monthly could use consonants AND vowels.
In 2013, they introduced the Google Wallet Mobile ATM which advertised that it could attach to most smartphones and “dispense money instantly and effortlessly”, including rare $2 and $50 bills. No more searching for an ATM or bank! “If your mobile ATM is running low on funds, a self-driving, armored, hybrid vehicle will be alerted and dispatched to your location–arriving within minutes to quickly and safely refill [your] ATM.”