Have I gotten lost in translation/ out of touch/ or stuck in my little bubble, because I am pretty darn sure there were more April Fool's pranks back in the days before Google and social media became big?
When still office-bound, my head would be so full of stuff, that I'd more often than not be caught out by a startling or preposterous headline on the early morning drive to work. My best work buddy and I often arrived early to miss some of the peak traffic and would catch up with the latest news in the morning newspaper while having our freshly brewed cup of coffee and a rusk.
To explain - I'm a night owl, definitely not a morning person, so would easily be caught out with April Fool's jokes. My friend, on the other hand, was at her best early mornings, and would not say a word about it being the first day of April.
I would sometimes be indignant, like:
How could our government even contemplate changing the name of our country to the Republic of Gupta!
At other times, there would be alarming news, like a mini Tsunami or massive Tidal wave that hit Durban beaches during the night!
Some of the commercial companies and restaurant chains also got in on the act. The funniest and most recent one I remember was when one of our big supermarket chains claimed to have created taste technology for their App so that people could smell a new flavour of Hot Cross Bun over their phone on the App. It seemed that many were caught out by that one, but it was way too far-fetched for me!
Changing the subject. It reminds me a bit of myself when looking at some of those small old family photos.
I kid you not, when deep in thought, and after searching for a particular photo for hours, I find myself using my fingers to zoom into the photo, crazy, right?
Or have you done that as well?
Well, at least I can laugh at myself in moments like that!
Our administrative capital city Pretoria is known for its avenues of Jacaranda trees which are covered in purple flowers in summertime. The city is fondly known as the Jacaranda city. There also is a popular Radio station Jacaranda FM that broadcasts from Johannesburg. So, the people of Gauteng, and South Africa, love the Jacaranda trees. We had a couple of trees growing on our school property, and when the Jacarandas were flowering, we knew it was time for the year-end exams.
There was much consternation when one of our country's best investigative journalistic TV programs, Carte Blanche, announced that the City fathers decided to remove all Jacaranda trees on public property in Pretoria because they are not indigenous to SA.
Thankfully, they reminded us at the end of the program that it was 1 April, and the Jacaranda insert was just their prank!
Edited on Canva - Photo by Junel Mujar on Unsplash
We lefties are always the butt of jokes, whether it's April Fool's Day or not, and those in the food industry often use us for their pranks!
Left-handed anything would appeal to me as a leftie who always uses her 'wrong' hand, according to those who use their 'right' hand.
However, I still cannot fathom out how anyone would fall for adverts for a left-handed sandwich or a burger, but it seems they're so believable, that people still fall for them!
I was curious about the origins of April Fool's Day, and found many theories.
Some historians speculate that it goes right back to the 16th century when France switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. The new year no longer started on 1 April, but many people did not accept that the new year had moved to 1 January and continued celebrating the new year on 1 April, but they became the butt of jokes and were called April Fools.
There are many other theories, one is that it originated during ancient Roman times.
It however did spread to Britain in the 18th century.
In Scotland it became a two-day event, something our Silver Scot @tengolotodo would know about, but, he's been busy trying to catch us out with Bumper Spaghetti Crops...
AND
...shoe trees as well! They can't give off a pleasant fragrance Ed?
Hopefully, they're not planted too close to the Spaghetti trees;)
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The local newspaper has a tradition of a preposterous front-page article ending in the middle of a sentence with the conclusion continued on a page that does not exist in that edition.
Haha that's a good one @jacobtothe. We stopped our newspaper subscription during Covid, funny but I miss the feel of that paper. I think it's time I start it up again!
Thank you for sharing that.
The best thing about April Fool's Day is precisely being innocent. Because it is more enjoyable. Remembering the pranks is nice and we smile again just remembering. Here in Cuba it is celebrated on December 28th. And they always surprise us. Thank you @lizelle for sharing your experiences. Nice week to you.🥰❤️
It does put a smile on one's face remembering all those pranks:)
I never knew it was celebrated on a different day in other parts of the world.
Hoping you are having a great week, mine's been crazy busy so I've hardly been on Hive.
I too have not been to Hive very often. But I really liked your post. Take care and have a nice weekend.🤗🥰❤️
This happens to me as well. At one time the husband caught me in the act and became a subject of teasing for a while😂
The joke about the Jacaranda Trees must have made many people upset when it was announced, only for them to realize at the end of the show that it wasn't true, haha!
I think many people still fall to April Fools Day jokes😅
Thank goodness I'm not the only one who tries to do that zooming in, I think it's a sign we're spending too much time in front of the PC or our phone, but it's irresistible as there's just so much to see and learn, right?
Yes, those Jacaranda trees are absolutely stunning, and that particular city has many and makes for beautiful aerial photography with big patches of lilac everywhere.
I'm sorry that I'm only now responding, but it's been a crazy week here!
I hope you're having a good week @ifarmgirl xxx
Very interesting read @lizelle - the one I most remember was a headline of a crocodile eating a young child at Zoo lake.
Oh my word, that must have caught quite a stir ;)
I used to enjoy waiting the whole year for this month to come and have/make those April's pranks, but with the passage of time I feel like they have no charm anymore. Maybe it's because I stopped doing them and receiving them from people or just because world doesn't seem a safe and funny place anymore, I don't know...
I do believe technology and people being so skeptical has a lot to do with it, and as you rightly say:
Sad but true!
In my country we only celebrate April Fool's Day on 28 December, I didn't know that April Fool's Day was also celebrated on other dates.
What a scare to think about the change of name of your country hehehehe
We actually learn a lot here on Hive, as I only thought it was held everywhere on the 1st of April.
That name change prank got a lot of people upset :)
saludos buena publicacion
Hahahaha... The Jacaranda Trees joke got a lot of people really riled up on Twitter if I remember correctly.
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I can't remember how long ago that was, but imagine when you realized you had told the world that you were caught out in an April Fool's prank!
Hahahaha... The Jacaranda Trees joke got a lot of people really rile up on Twitter if I remember correctly.
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Hello @lizelle, you made me laugh with your April Fool's Day anecdotes. I see that they make strong jokes through the official media hahaha. In Cuba it is December 28, many jokes are made among people but never in an advertising medium. It is true that fewer jokes are made than before, society is changing. I wish you a nice week. Best regards.
April fools day many pranks played, Nando's became a great gamer to catch people with adds.
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Oh yes, I'd forgotten those, some are very clever;)
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april fools😂
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