Mirror Magazine

Mirror Magazine

On a day like that…
By the Prankster
Another April Fool’s day gone by… jokes have been played, pranks have been pulled off, and everyone has ended up laughing… Every year, with the first of April approaching, almost all of us are tempted to trick someone. Be it a little white lie, or an elaborately planned stunt, one thing is for sure – everything is done in good faith.

The origins of this much-loved day is unclear, with some believing that it evolved simultaneously in several cultures. April Fool’s Day or All Fool’s Day takes place annually on April 1. The day is generally observed by playing a practical joke on a ‘victim’ who soon becomes known as an ‘April Fool’. This custom is thought to have started in France during the 16th century but the British are said to have brought it to the United States. In France, the victim of a joke is called an ‘April Fish’, while in England, tricks can be played only in the morning and you are considered a ‘noodle’, if a trick is played on you. In Scotland, you are called an ‘April gowk’, which is another name for a cuckoo bird and in Portugal, April Fool’s is celebrated on the Sunday and Monday before Lent, and the traditional trick there, is to throw flour at your friends.

Back at home, so many of us have been both victims and creators of April Fool’s jokes. “While in school, I once took a bite off a friend’s sunlight sandwich, thinking it was cheese!” says *Shanaya, explaining how she was tricked by a friend, during an ever-famous communal eating session in school. “I asked my friend what was in her sandwiches, and when she said it was cheese, I took a huge bite and munched it about once or twice, before realising it was sunlight soap. I wanted to puke, and obviously everyone just laughed at me. But no hard feelings, after all it was done for pure fun.”

“I remember our whole class getting tricked in year nine by one of our teachers and everyone believed it, because teachers don’t normally do things like that,” says *Tahani, recalling how their English teacher fooled the whole class by making them take an examination on April fool’s day. “She told us about a month ahead, and told us we didn’t need to prepare for it, because it was just a survey the education ministry was doing on the standard of English in schools. Some people even came prepared for it! Anyway in the end we had to put together all the first letters of our answers together and it spelt out something like “Happy April Fool’s Day, go and get your free ice-creams from the tuck shop.” The best part was to be one of the first to complete and see all the others sitting and concentrating on the test… looking like April Fools all right!”

“A friend of mine once put in a marriage proposal in the newspaper and we made sure it appeared on April 1,” says *Shehan. “We got quite a lot of responses for it and this obviously made the joke even better.”

“Once on April 1, as soon as we were appointed as prefects while in school, we were asked by the senior prefects to chant ‘I am a goose’ in bits and pieces which didn’t mean a thing. It sounded like ‘aiya’ , ‘m’, ‘agoo’, ‘sss’…!”says *Dharshika. “They told us that it was some kind of a new meditation, so there we were breathing in and out, hands moving in all directions and saying ‘I am a goose’ with a lot of passion!”

On April Fool’s day, age is no barrier when it comes to getting tricked and tricking, with parents tricking children, children playing pranks on kids, friends doing it to each other and sometimes even getting strangers involved. “My parents manage to trick my aunts and uncles almost every April 1, by calling them up early morning and telling them about something political that has just happened,” says *Mahesh. “It’s actually quite funny how they get tricked every year!”

“My friend’s father is a police officer and on April 1, he called his daughters and told them to be careful about any pranks or jokes that might be played. But once my friend got to work, she called her dad and told him that she crashed her car in a big way, on the way to work,” says *Subadhri. “Her father obviously got worried and sent a whole load of people to office, forgetting that it was April 1 and that he himself had warned them of pranks.”

For *Tara, one experience on April Fool’s day wasn’t exactly all that fun. “My uncle had had an accident and his leg was quite badly damaged and he came home and told us that his doctor thought his leg should be amputated and even he himself was alright with it. We were all in shock, till he called us in the night and started chanting April Fool, go to school… It wasn’t exactly funny for us!”

So for all of you who were victims of an April Fool’s prank this year, don’t worry, it was just a joke. As for those of you smart ones who had the last laugh, well done… and make sure to go for it again next year. After all, we all need a bit of humour in our lives!

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