For any group ESO or BAC: When and what is April Fool’s Day?

When and what is April Fool’s Day?

April Fool’s Day is on 1 April. It’s the custom in the UK to play a trick or a joke on someone on this 

day. If the person falls for the joke, then they are called an ‘April Fool’. 

In fact, it’s only half a day because April Fool’s Day finishes at midday. No more jokes after lunchtime, please!

What kind of tricks do people play?

Here are some April Fool’s tricks from around the world:

• In the 1990s Burger King published an advert in the magazine USA Today offering new ‘Left-handed Whoppers’ (hamburgers) for the 32 million left-handed Americans! Thousands of customers ordered the new burger in the restaurants.
• A zoo in Japan said that they had a giant penguin that was 165cm tall and weighed 80kg! In fact, it was a man dressed up in a penguin suit.
• One year in the UK a children’s news programme said that scientists had invented a ‘Brain Band’. It was a coloured head band that you put on your head and it helped to make you more intelligent! In an on-line poll, 47 per cent of the children who heard the news wanted to buy a ‘brain band’!
• In 1949 a radio presenter in New Zealand told listeners that there were millions of wasps coming to invade. He told viewers to wear their socks over their trousers and to put honey on their doors. Millions of listeners believed him!
• In 1976 a very famous British astronomer told radio listeners that at 9.47 a.m. the earth was going to experience a feeling of less gravity. He said that Jupiter and Pluto would cross and if listeners jumped in the air at exactly 9.47 a.m. they would feel the sensation of having no gravity! Hundreds of listeners phoned the radio to say they had jumped and floated in the air!
• Ikea announced that the shop had launched a dog highchair (highchairs are usually for babies!) named 'HUNDSTOL' (Swedish for dog chair). Google ‘IKEA dog high chair’ for more details.
• The free London newspaper, Metro, came up with a novel idea to deal with the problem of litter on the underground (unfortunately it was only a joke). They said that the newspaper was now edible – ‘the only paper that you can eat after reading’.
• A British newspaper announced that Portugal had ‘sold’ Cristiano Ronaldo, the footballer, to Spain for €160 million. Why? To try to clear its national debt. It was a joke, of course.

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