April fools’ day has been celebrated for centuries by people worldwide on April 1st, aka “All fools’ day”. It includes pulling pranks, practical jokes and playing some hoaxes on others, and everyone seems to enjoy this one day quite a lot.

From some well-planned pranks to small ones, it usually ends with the prankster yelling, “April fool!” at the subject in question. This exclamation lets the subject know that whatever they just experienced was just an April fools’ day joke.

What makes it fun isn’t just the trickery of it but rather how people get creative with their ideas and jokes. Although we can’t say that it has been the same forever since the origin and history of this particular event take upon certain faces.

History of April Fools’ Day

April fools’ day is said to have started in the 18th century when it had spread across all of Britain. For instance, it turned into a two-day event in Scotland where people were first sent to hunt a gowk (cuckoo bird symbolizing a fool). Next came Taille day, which had pranks like “kick me” sign on people’s back or attaching fake tails on them.

Moreover, it comes to the origin and history of April fools’ day, it is quite unknown since there are a handful of stories that unearth as we start discovering. Some of the links we trace back to are:

Julian to Gregorian

As speculated by some historians, April fools’ day dates back to 1582, when France switched its calendar from Julian to Gregorian. This was done in 1563 after the Council of Trent issued this change.

Similar to the Hindu calendar, the Julian calendar began anew around 1st April (New Year’s), marked by the equinox of spring. However, when the Gregorian came into practice, the new year was now January 1st.

While some people were aware of this, others either got the news slow or failed to accept the updated new year. Hence, they continued to celebrate it on 1st April, which made them the laughing stock as people started calling them “April fools.”

Some pranks were also pulled upon them, such as attaching a paper fish to their backs and referring to them as “Poisson d’avril” (meaning: April fish), symbolizing them as young fish that get caught easily and naïve and gullible people.

Vernal Equinox

Another speculation also tells us that April fools’ day was linked to the Vernal equinox (1st day of spring) of the Northern Hemisphere. It was believed that mother nature fooled the people with its unpredictable and everchanging weather.

Hilaria (Ancient Rome)

On the other hand, April fools’ day has also been linked to festivals like Hilaria (“Joyful” in Latin) that the followers of the cult Cybele took part in. According to historians, its celebrations took place in Ancient Rome at the end of March.

Inspired by the Egyptian legend of Seth, Isis, and Osiris, people used to dress up in disguise to mock their fellow citizens and magistrates.

What is the April Fool’s Day Theme 2022?

If we talk about the modern era, April fool’s day is taken as a joyous event full of laughter and often light-hearted pranks. While some people go above and beyond pranking their fellows for the sake of “content” or “views,” others like to host parties with themes like:

• The king and queen of fools
• Dressing up as the Kardashians
• Mismatched clothing
• Switching genders
• Pointless Accouterments
• Dressing up as brands/fast food outlets
• Dressing up as fellow employees/family members

Such themes can turn the gears and switch on the festive mode everyone is looking for. Many people nowadays host April fools’ day theme 2022 parties at their homes or companies.

Why is it even important to host an April Fools’ Day party?

Well, there are several reasons why you may want to host one, and a few of them are:

Better relationship

Any sort of party can build better relations between people, especially when interacting with one another. For instance, hosting an April fools’ day party at your company would build better camaraderie between the employees. This usually happens when people feel like they’re part of a cohesive group, hence being more engaged and productive. Moreover, it can also help reduce stress levels and boost one’s morale.

Fellow appreciation

An April fools’ day party can also show your fellow companions that you appreciate them and want them to be a part of your life. It strengthens the bond between people by making employees feel cared for and appreciated, as far as a company setting is concerned.

A burst of creativity and innovation

If anything, such a party can give you a chance to be creative and innovative with your setting and pranks. For example, expressing April fool’s day through a range of colors to form a color scheme, like:

• Light Sea Green
• Vivid Tangelo
• Arctic Lime
• Fire-Opal
• Maya Blue

Although, a theme as such isn’t “fixed,” and anyone can experiment with what they feel the theme might be. However, as a crux of it all, April fools’ day essentially represents:

• A fool
• A prankster
• Laughter/mortification

Moreover, it isn’t just a game of common folk anymore, but big organizations like the newspaper, TV, and radio stations, since we also see them fooling their audiences and having a good laugh at it.

If you’re wondering about “How to celebrate April Fools’ Day?” then keep reading.

How to celebrate April Fools’ Day?

Now that we have gotten the general idea of it down let us discuss some of the ways that April fools’ day is celebrated. Since it includes pranking people, some of the classic pranks can be:

Having someone “accidentally” spray themselves with water

You can call it one of the simplest pranks in the book. Just head to your kitchen with a rubber band. Tie it around the hose attachment’s trigger, and voila! Your victim will spray themselves with water from the hose when they turn it on!

Make them freak out over a bug!

This is simply the most basic prank, where you scream “COCKROACH!!” to completely startle and scare someone, only to follow it by “April fools’!” when they get scared.

Removing or replacing the batteries

For this prank, you could either remove the remote control’s batteries or replace them with something silly like baby carrots or a note saying “April Fools!” This way, you could trick any one of your family members easily!

While these were some of the very standard ones on the market, let’s dive into some specific activities that can be done on April fools’ day!

Fun Activities to Do for April Fools’ Day

It is an occasion to enjoy nowadays, as we have seen in real-life examples and on YouTube, where people with bigger budgets carry out these pranks on a high level. However, if you don’t have a big budget, you can still carry out some harmless pranks at your home, school, and even at your job!

Contest of costumes

Costume contests can be very fun on April fools’ day, where everyone can dress up as other people and compete against each other for the audience to decide the winner. Rest assured, this would set the mood for the party!

All you need to decide is to set a theme and let people get creative with it!

Food swap

Swapping out similar-looking foods for others and pranking each other has to be an important one on the list.

Especially considering the realistic-looking cakes now, the market has certainly upped their game to the next level, like a bag of Doritos or toilet paper are CAKE!

The way that you can do something similar is by swapping:

• Apple fries for real fries
• Mashed potato with food dye on a cone instead of real ice-cream
• Fake fruits for real fruits
• Brussel sprouts for cake pops

There are so many ways that someone can get creative with this idea, so take the wheel, for these certainly get the hilarious expressions and are completely harmless!

Games

The great thing about games is that you can incorporate them anywhere at any time, especially at parties! Some of the exciting ones are:

• The dry joke king

This is all about making the worst jokes possible! The person who makes the most people groan with how bad their jokes were, wins!

• Apple dunking

It is time to get ready to fish some apples out with this one! Since apples are so good for us anyway, why not incorporate this game into our party?

• The whoopie cushion

It cannot get any more classic with the whoopie cushion. As immature as it may sound, it’s a hilarious prank to pull on your friends.

With April fools’ day, you can never get enough of the jokes, be it with your family, friends, your boyfriend on texts, or in person.

April Fools’ Day Ideas to Start Pranking!

Diving deeper into our prank world, let’s explore some more pranks that can help us stay on top of our game!

April Fools’ Pranks to Do at Home

Since your home is your kingdom, you must have access to all sorts of possessions required!

• Balloons

You can take out their pillows from the pillowcases when your family members are away and swap them with balloons. If their head is heavy enough, they might even get scared when they pop!

• Toothpaste in my Oreos

Does someone in your family love Oreos? Then this is quite simply the easiest April fools’ prank for family. What you need to do is twist your Oreo to reveal the cream. Scrape it off with a butter knife and put a dollop of white toothpaste instead. They would certainly be in for a minty ride!

Best April Fools’ Prank for School

Schools are truly one of the best places to play a prank, so why not? Your fellow students and teachers can be the prime victim of pranks at school! Some funny ones include:

• The board that never gets clean

If you have a chalkboard at your school, then stick a piece of chalk into the eraser, so everything your teacher tries to clean the board gets dirtier!

• Fake cake

For this, you might need an accomplice that has access to the teacher’s room. Perhaps, one of those friendly teachers? Once you have done that, get a cereal box, empty it, and decorate the outside with fondant and icing. Make it all pretty, then ask the accomplice to place it in the teacher’s room, so when everyone cuts into it, they all get baffled!

April Fools’ Prank for Boyfriend/Significant Other

A significant other is the closest to us, which makes pranking them the funniest as well. Let’s see how creative we can get with pranks!

• Sike

Spend weeks before 1st April, telling them that you’ll blow their minds away with the craziest prank of all time. When the day finally arrives, do nothing, and watch them go crazy overthinking when the prank’s coming.

• Tattoo trick

Using a permanent marker, draw something ridiculous on yourself “in their honor” and tell them you’d like for you both to get it tattooed.

• Reverse the roles

If your boyfriend leaves the toilet seat up or finishes the toilet paper for you to suffer, then how about you switch roles with him? It won’t just be a prank but would also teach him a little something.

April Fools’ Pranks to Play on Parents

As a kid, this may be a treasured time for you to pull a prank on your parents. Some of them are listed below for you!

• Moldy food

Green food coloring is your friend here! All you need to do is dab a drop of it onto the food, such as the top slice of bread in the loaf, so your parents think the grocery they just got has already gone bad.

• Not-so-juicy surprise

Does one of your parents like to have fruit juice in the morning? If yes, then this is the perfect chance for you, for it is time to replace their juice with Jell-o! the ingredients required include a mere box of Jell-O that you will set with a straw in place. If done right, the juice is certainly one thing your parent isn’t getting in the morning.

• Nail polish to the sabotage

If not anything else, soaps are one thing that everyone uses, so why not take that opportunity to benefit ourselves? What you need to do is dry off your soap completely and cover it with clear nail polish. Once it sets, no matter how much your family rubs it, it isn’t lathering up for sure!

• Broken screen

Since technology is so beneficial to us, why not use it to prank people? Search up “Broken screen” on YouTube or Google and display it fully onto the screen, so your parents are in for a shock!

Now that we have given you a few ideas regarding some pranks let’s see how innovative you can get with them. Also, remember that these pranks don’t need to be specified for a certain person or place and can be played on anyone!

After all, that is what’s so great about April Fools’ Day – the leverage to take control of our jokes! Do you want to know some interesting facts about April Fools’ Day? Then, keep on reading!

Facts About April Fools’ Day!

You may think you know everything about April fools’ day, but you may just be wrong. Find out how much you know by reading through the 13 interesting facts about April fools’ day:

1. We know a bit too much and nothing at all about invented April fools’ day.
2. The activity of antibodies in your body increases by 20% due to laughter, so you’re beating up tumor cells and viruses on this day more than others.
3. It was also known as the “Hunt of Gowk Day” in Scotland, which is rather a form of twisted dark humor.
4. BBC announced in 1976 that on April fools’ day, the Earth’s gravity would decrease so anyone who would jump could float. This, of course, was a joke, and those who failed to notice the date fell for it.
5. BBC took the win yet again in 2008 when they telecasted a piece of news about penguins “flying” to South America from Antarctica. Who knew penguins could fly?
6. What would be April fools’ day if not for interstellar operations? A travel site announced their “Trip to Mars” on 1st April and got quite a lot of registrations in.
7. The people of Pacific Island once mistook an actual weather broadcast announcement for a prank on 1st April, only to be hit by a great tragedy in 1945.
8. Well, what do you know? Even royals partake in this, seeing that the Korean royal family is allowed to lie and carry out some pranks on April fools’ day.
9. In 1996, Taco Bell Corporation ran a full-page advertisement claiming that they had bought the “Liberty Bell” and named it “Taco Liberty Bell”.
10. Gmail’s “mic drop” was launched on April fools’ day, and people thought it was a joke, even though it was too good an service to be a joke.
11. In April 2013, a launch about “Guardian Goggles” was announced by the Guardian, saying that these goggles would beam the journalists directly to the visual field of the wearer, which would enable users to view the world through the eyes of a Guardian at all times.
12. In the UK, jokes are allowed to be played till noon, after which they are considered bad luck.
13. In Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, France, and French-speaking areas of Switzerland and Canada, 1st April is known as “April fish.”

How many of these did you know? If there are more than eight, then congratulations! We might even consider you the queen/king of April fools’ facts.

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Why is April fools’ day celebrated?

From the change of calendars to the equinox of spring, April fools’ day is celebrated to make fun of people that are considered “fools”.

What is another name for April fools’ day?

In France, it is known as “Poisson d’Avril,” while in Scotland, it is referred to as the “Hunt of Gowk Day”. Besides that, it is also known as “All fools’ day.”

Does April fools’ day count as a religious holiday?

No! It doesn’t. April fools’ day is a celebration that knows no ethnic, religious, or cultural bounds.

Are April fools’ day and feast of fools the same thing?

No, April fools’ day is quite different from the Feast of the Fools; that shouldn’t be confused. Feast of the fools was a mock-religious, popular medieval commemoration that involved parodies and status reversals of the church officials and was done mainly by the low-level functionaries.

Does April Fools’ Day only cause happiness?

While it may be considered a day of laughter for most, it can be stressful and confusing for a party at the receiving end of jokes and pranks.

Conclusion

Moving on to our conclusion that April fools’ day doesn’t specifically stem from anywhere but is enjoyed as a day of pranks by everyone across the globe. Considering the number of possibilities it beholds, it certainly should be a day to enjoy. From pranks to parties, the ventures are endless!

While we may not know how it all began and who started it, it is still a fun occasion for many people – especially the pranksters out there. While some may prank each other with fake foods, others may take it as a chance to confess to their crushes. Either way, it sure boosts Serotonin levels in our system!

However, do keep in mind not to get hurtful and harmful with your pranks, so it can be a memorable experience for everyone!

Want to read about other important days in the month of April? Then click here.
Or if you want to read about important days of other months of the year, then check out “important days of the year” category.