I know many of us have in the past have done something on this day to celebrate it and I’m positive that 2009 won’t be any different from the rest. For some people, the day is full of excitement and fun while for others, they would just love for it to pass by quickly.
I tried looking for a good explanation and eventually opted for one found on Wikipedia. I have put a small snippet of the definition below and you can follow the link above to get the full details.
April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day, although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1. The day is marked by the commission of hoaxes and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, enemies, and neighbors, or sending them on fool’s errand, the aim of which is to embarrass the gullible. Traditionally, in some countries, the jokes only last until noon.
Some April Fools’ Day jokes from the past:
- Leaning tower no more – In the 1950s the Dutch television news reported that the Tower of Pisa had fallen over.
- Spaghetti trees? – In 1957 the BBC television programme ‘Panorama’ showed the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees.
- Instant colour TV – In 1962 Sweden only had one TV channel and its technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display colour reception by pulling a nylon stocking over their TV screen. Colour broadcasts only commenced in Sweden on 1 April 1970.
- Icebergs in Sydney – In 1978 a barge appeared in Sydney Harbour towing a giant iceberg. Dick Smith, a local adventurer, had been loudly promoting his scheme to tow an iceberg from Antarctica for quite some time. Apparently he had succeeded. Local radio stations provided coverage of the barge entering the harbour. Then it started to rain and the fire-fighting foam and shaving cream that the berg was really made of washed away, uncovering the white plastic sheets beneath.
- Big Ben goes digital -In 1980 the BBC reported that Big Ben was going to be given a digital readout. It received a huge response from listeners protesting the change.
- Hong Kong powdered water – In 1982 the South China Morning Post announced that a solution to Hong Kong’s water shortage was at hand. Scientists, it said, had found a way to drain the clouds surrounding the island’s peak of their water by electrifying them via antennae. A single pint of water added to this powdered water would magically transform into 10 pints of drinkable water. Hong Kong’s radio shows were flooded with calls all day from people eager to discuss these solutions to the water shortage.
- For the left handed – In 1998 Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people whose condiments were designed to drip out of the right side. Not only did customers order the new burgers, but some specifically requested the old, right-handed burger.
- Faking fire – In 1998 the Channel 4 morning show, ‘The Big Breakfast’, got into trouble with various authorities for pulling an April Fool’s stunt showing video footage of the Millennium Dome on fire.
- Assassination of Bill Gates – In 2003 many Chinese and South Korean websites claimed that CNN reported that Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was assassinated, resulting in a 1.5 percent drop in the Korean stock market.
- A matter of pride – In 2004 the ‘Jeremy Vine Show’ reported that Germany had dropped the euro but, as the German mark was no longer in existence, they were in negotiations to adopt the British pound. Outraged listeners called by the hundreds to say that such a move would be an assault on British sovereignty.
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