| April Fools’ Day |
April Fools’ Day
Absurd holiday inspires hoaxes and pranks
by Adelia Ladson
When I was very young, my mother was my primary target for April Fools’ Day pranks. Of course, they were all pretty simple and obvious. However, she indulged me and pretended they worked. I think she might have been the one to introduce me to the holiday because I really don’ t remember learning about April Fools’ Day at school. I’ m sure its celebration was most likely discouraged, to some degree, during the school day.
In fact, April Fools’ Day’ s origins are not really known but some historians speculate that it dates back at least to 1582, when France adopted the Gregorian Calendar. Before that switch, the new year began around April 1, during the Spring Equinox.
The holiday has also been linked to the Roman festival,“ Hilaria,” which is probably also where we get the word“ hilarious” from. This day of festivity included Roman citizens dressing in disguises and mocking their neighbors and local government officials. Regardless of its origins, it’ s a holiday that’ s celebrated worldwide.
An old saying my mom would recite if I tried to“ April Fools” her after the day had gone by is“ April Fools’ gone past and you’ re the biggest fool at last.” And over the past decades, there have been some fantastic April Fools’ pranks, played around the world, that certainly left people wondering if they were the“ biggest fool at last.”
Remaining at the top of the list, since 1957, the“ spaghetti crop” prank on citizens of the United Kingdom, I believe, is one of the most creative pranks to date. During a BBC current affairs program, a feature was presented about a region in Switzerland, near the Italian border, that was having an“ exceptionally heavy spaghetti crop” that year. Footage was shown of people picking spaghetti off of trees while a broadcaster narrated the video. The spot included the broadcaster talking about the“ spaghetti weevil” disappearing as the reason for the bumper harvest and he even discussed the breeding of the spaghetti trees to produce strains that were the perfect length for spaghetti. The clip ended with a family sitting down at the table to enjoy their“ real, homegrown spaghetti.”( You can still find a video of the fake report online and watch it for yourself.)
Now, to be fair, many British citizens, at that time, were not exactly familiar with spaghetti. Hundreds phoned the BBC the next day to get more information about spaghetti cultivation and how they could grow their own spaghetti trees. The BBC’ s response:“ Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
Another prank from the Fifties, in 1954, was played on Hawaii before it had become a state of the US. A Hawaiian deejay announced during his broadcast that the US Senate had approved Hawaii’ s statehood. Furthermore, the Senate had also approved an immediate refund of all the islanders’ 1953 federal taxes. Unsurprisingly, the IRS was flooded with calls. Banks even got calls from residents that wanted to place stock and bond orders on the basis of their expected refund. The reason why the Hawaiians were pranked so easily was that a tax refund had actually been talked about in the news at the time. Blame it on a US congressman that had suggested that the islanders should be given a refund on all of the federal taxes they had ever paid in if Hawaii wasn’ t granted full statehood. It was, basically, another politician speaking without thinking that opened the door for this prank. Of course, five years later, Hawaii was granted statehood but those refunds have yet to be seen.
54 MoultrieScene APRIL 2025