If you're anything like me, you probably have wondered just who the April Fool's were/are?
I decided to find out the answer. I could find no definitive answer, however, this on seems the most plausible.
Way back when, the Vernal Equinox was celebrated starting on March 25, which is Lady Day, and New Years' Day in many European implementations of the Julian calendar, preceding by exactly nine months Christmas Day. The celebrations ended on April 2.
Communications were typically by word of mouth, and, therefore, news spread slowly throughout the world. When the observance of the new year was moved to January 1, many were slow to learn of it or were not so inclined to accept it. These people still clung to the beginning of the year in April. All the other folks in the know used to make sport of these folks right much and they thus became known as the April Fools!
The day eventually came to be one of playing pranks on friends and co-workers and sending them on Fool's Errands and such...Here are some of my favourite April Fool's Day pranks:
- In 1992 National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation program announced that Richard Nixon, in a surprise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again."
- In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia where the bell was housed to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell revealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. Incidentally, Taco Bell also reported as fact that sales increased by $500,000 on April 1st and $600,000 on April 2nd over the prior week’s same day sales.
- In 1993 a German radio station announced that officials in Cologne had just passed an unusual new city regulation. Joggers going through the park would be required to pace themselves to go no faster than six mph. Any faster, it was felt, would unnecessarily disturb the squirrels who were in the middle of their mating season.
- In 1965 BBC TV featured an interview with a professor who had just invented a device called "smellovision." This miraculous technology allowed viewers to experience directly in their own home aromas produced in the television studio. The professor offered a demonstration by cutting some onions and brewing coffee. A number of viewers called in to confirm that they distinctly experienced these scents as if they were there in the studio with him. Since no aromas were being transmitted, whatever these viewers thought they smelled coming out of their TV sets must be chalked up to the power of suggestion.
- In 1998 Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today announcing the introduction of a new item to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the advertisement, the new whopper included the same ingredients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, hamburger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed customers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Simultaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version.
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