April 1st in many countries is commonly known as April Fool's Day. Are you familiar with the tradition? As you read through the text pay attention to the bold words. Do you know what they mean?
On the first day of April it is custom to play practical jokes and tricks. April Fool's Day is when we try to fool people by getting them to believe ridiculous things; we trick people for fun. On this day, apart from your friends trying to play a joke on you, you can also expect the media to do the same. Newspapers, television and radio often run funny false news stories to trick their readers and viewers.
No one knows for sure when this unusual tradition originated but many believe it started in 1564 in France. One possible explanation is April 1 used to be New Year's Day, but the New Year was changed to Jan 1 that year. People who still celebrated the "old" New Year became known as April fools, and it became common to play jokes and tricks on them.
Over the years the media have been responsible for coming up with a lot of inventive and fun April Fool hoaxes.
In 1957, the BBC ran a story reporting that spaghetti grows on trees in Switzerland!
In 1998, fast food giant Burger King announced the introduction of a "Left-Handed Whopper", a burger specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans!
In 2008, the BBC came up with another original hoax when they reported on a newly discovered colony of flying penguins!
So be careful today or you could be an April fool!
Can you match the bold words to their definitions?
