April Fool’s

Watch the video and fill in the blanks with these words:

England - January 1^st - April – Philadelphia –calendar – fools – prank - noon

April Fools’ Day or All Fools’ Day is one day of the year when you're allowed to mercilessly __________ your friends, family and co-workers. How exactly did this day come about? We don’t actually know for sure what started the celebration of April Fools’ Day. Evidences can be found as early as 1500 but these accounts are infrequent and not very detailed.

The most popular theory is that it began around 1582 in France during the reformation of the ____________. Before France adopted the Gregorian calendar, they celebrated the New Year for eight days, beginning on March 25^th and ending on April 1^st. When they switched the calendar systems, the 8^th day moved from April 1^st to ____________________________^.

Because they didn't have internet, phones, social media and a mail system, a lot of people didn't hear about this change until years later. Those who did not hear about the change continued to celebrate New Year in _________. Others refused to celebrate it out to rebellion. Those that have been informed of the change and adjusted their calendars begin to make fun of these ___________ who were informed or rebellious. This harassment evolved into a tradition of playing pranks on the first day of April and then spread to other countries.

However April Fools’ Day was already established in ________, which did not change calendar system until 1752. Also people were already engaged in pranks and light-heartedness around this time of year, long before the French switched their calendar systems, such as in the case of the ancient Roman Festival of Hilaria.

Modern celebrations of April Fools’ Day have slightly different traditions depending on the country you are in, but they all have the similar theme of pranking and humiliating individuals. In France they try to tape an image of a fish to your back without you noticing it and in Portugalthey throw flour to you. In England, you’re only supposed to put jokes until _________and if you put a joke after noon, you’re called an “April fool”.  In the US as in Britain, even popular media outlets and companies have been known to get involved in the fun.

In 1996 Taco Bell announced that it had purchased the liberty bell from the city of ________________ and that it was going to rename it as the Taco Liberty Bell. In 1192 NPR claimed that Richard Nixon would be runningagain for president. The British publication, The Guardian, famously pranked the public in 1977, when they said that a semicolon-shaped island in the Indian Ocean had been discovered. This hoax is credited for launching the trend of April Fools’ Day pranks by British tabloids.

Teacher Gustavo