Ever pranked someone? April Fool’s Day is celebrated every year on April 1st in over 10 different countries countries. It is a day to play harmless pranks and jokes on your peers.  These jokes and peers are known as the ‘April Fools’.

April Fool’s day is celebrated differently in different countries.  It is believed that the occasion may have begun in France, where the day is known as ‘Poisson d’Avril’.  It is traditional for French children to tape a paper fish to their friends’ back for a laugh.  Unlike in England and Canada where April Fool’s Day lasts for just the morning, in Scotland, it lasts for two days.  In Scotland, the two days are known as ‘Hunt the Gowk Day’- ‘Gowk’ meaning ‘foolish person’.

Famous April Fool’s pranks include a man in Alaska in 1974, setting 70 tires on fire on a volcano.  This caused people to believe that the volcano had erupted and to panic. Another includes identical twins pranking people on a train.  One pretended that his brother was from the future in order to freak out the fellow passengers.  However, not all pranks have received a humorous response.  The famous web engine, Google, allowed users to search for photos and reply to texts with emojis.  This was not the problem. The problem was that if users replied to an email, an automatic picture of a minion would be sent.  This seems silly and funny when thinking about it, but for some, this caused a major issue.  Google responded to the events by stating that, “We realise many of you use Gmail for very important messages, and we are sorry if Mic Drop was in any way harmful to you.”.  It looks as though April Fool's Day didn’t turn out too well for this multinational company then!

Olivia Wiltshire 

Langley Park School for Girls