April Fool's Day

April Fools' Day is celebrated all around the world on April 1. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, it is a day where everyone plays all kinds of jokes and foolishness on friends, family members, teachers, neighbors, work associates, etc.

Traditionally, in some countries such as New Zealand, Ireland, the UK, Australia, and South Africa, the jokes only last until noon, and someone who plays a trick after noon is called an "April Fool".  
 The earliest recorded association between April 1 and foolishness can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (1392).

WELL-KNOWN PRANKS BY TV CHANNELS:

• In 2008, the BBC reported on a newly discovered colony of flying penguins. An elaborate video segment was even produced, featuring Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) walking with the penguins in Antarctica, and following their flight to the Amazon rainforest.
• In 2010, The One Show did a part on "Cloned Unicorns" and then revealed that it was an April Fool's Day joke.
• In 2011, BBC ran a story on an earthquake in Blackpool on both radio and the bbc news website.

Pinanas (2009)

British supermarket chain Waitrose placed ads in newspapers announcing the availability of a new fruit, the pinana (a combination of pineapple and banana). The text of the ad read:
"Pinanas. Fresh in today and exclusive to Waitrose. If you find that all Waitrose pinanas have sold out, don't worry, there's 50% off our essential Waitrose strawberries."



 

If you want to talk about ALL FOOL'S DAY make sure you know the meaning of words such as HOAXES or PRANKS and some useful collocations: TO PLAY A TRICK ON somebody.