April Fools' Day 2023: Reason Behind Celebrating This Day

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April Fool's Day is an official day to play pranks and practical jokes with limits not decided. It is the most light-hearted day of the year and is widely followed across the UK, USA and France. The origin of April Fools' Day is not known as such but according to Amy Bix, one of the professors in the history of American pop culture, the origin of this day lies in France. It dates back to the time when France was switching from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.

According to the Julian calendar, France celebrates New Year at this time of the year but with the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, New Year was to be celebrated on the 1st of January. After the introduction of the new calendar, people often mixed the dates of the New Year. Some people by mistake would end up celebrating New Year on the wrong date. Thus, started the term April Fools' Day. Today, it has become a day dedicated to using your prankster instinct.

We all at some point in life have played the April Fools' Day prank and have also been the target. As for me, I have been a target of pranks on several occasions but the number of times I played the prank on others is also many. Today as my niece gets ready with all her prank ideas, I get reminded of one such prank which was played on me and I was completely taken.

It was during my graduation days, when I lived in Pune in a PG, with four other girls. We used to live on the ground floor of a bungalow. This bungalow was at the dead-end of the road and a beautiful house spread across a wide expanse of land. It had a massive spread garden. Though I loved the house, sometimes at night while returning home, I felt the house looked shady. It was about this time of the year when suddenly every day at night I heard footsteps near my window. First I thought it was just imagination but as days passed by, the footsteps grew louder and sometimes I felt I could almost hear his breath. My PG aunty was not there so I discussed it with friends.

One day, the leader of our gang, decided to catch the person red-handed. Each one of us took hold of some weapon-like thing, (I was given a stick) and with the light switched off, waited for the person. The moment we heard the footsteps, we all crept out and I by chance was leading the team. As I came close to my window, I could see a shadow. I got terrified and turned around, to find myself alone. My friends had disappeared. I could feel tears sting my eyes and with all my might ran back to my room. As I entered, my friends shouted 'April Fool', This was the most well-planned April Fool Prank, I had ever heard of.

This was my experience. So what are you planning?