April Fool's Day: History, significance and why is it celebrated
April Fool's Day
From Thailand to India, countries have told people not to makeAprilFools' Day pranks related to coronavirus, with some threatening jail time as they seek to prevent the spread of rumours which could put lives at risk.
Tech giant Google, which is famous for its annual spoofs, has cancelled the tradition because of the pandemic which has killedat least 2,816,908 people since the outbreak emerged in China in December 2019.
The exact origin ofAprilFools' Day is not clear. Some speculate that it began fromGeoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, whilehistorians believe it began inFrance in 1564.
However, few scholarsdisagree with both and say that it dates back tothe 1600s.
In France, the day is called the 'Poisson d'avril', which literally means ''April fish.''The customary prank involves pinning a paper fish on people's back.
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In Brazil, the day is called 'Dia da Mentira', meaning ''lie day.''
In Scotland, April fools' day continues into April 2 whenit becomes the 'tailie day,' on whichpeoplestick a paper tail to their friends' back that reads ''kick me.''
Every year, brands come up with an innovative way to prank people...
German automaker Volkswagen AG's USunit issued a false news release on Tuesdayclaiming it would rename its USoperations as "Voltswagen of America" in a marketing stunt designed to call attention to its electric vehicle efforts, the company said on Tuesday.
A company launched a beer-flavour pizza only to later clarify in a tweet that it was an April Fools' joke.
''Scary how many of you actually wanted to try these yesterday'', the tweet read.
An Indian app-based cab service- announced the world's fully electric flying car. People went berserk before they were told that it was a prank.
An e-commerce company saidit had begun accepting bitcoin as payment, while anotherbrand launched an app-controlled nanotech hair colour as part of April Fool's Day.
It is funny how people fall for it every year. Although this year-- was a special case. Most of the peopleare barely managing to keep a tab on the date and the day-- courtesy of school closures, work from home, and the coronavirus.