April 1st is finally here and despite the seemingly declining number of large-scale practical jokes from local brands and creators, the prankster’s holiday, as it were, still makes you expect the unexpected all day… but why?

April Fools’ Day, or All Fools’ Day, is celebrated by many countries every single year and is generally known for granting a free pass to individuals to prank their loved ones into believing the most random things.

The custom is actually traced back to medieval France, when New Year’s Day used to be celebrated on March 25th due to the use of the Julian calendar, before the 1564 reform to the Gregorian calendar. New Year’s Day festivities would reach their pinnacle on April 1st. After the January 1st New Year’s was adopted, those who forgot to change their date and continued to celebrated New Year’s on April 1st were labelled ‘April Fools’.

All across Europe, pranksters celebrates in some crazy ways, with people in France, Belgium, Italy and French-speaking Switzerland being amongst the countries to ‘celebrate’ by sticking a paper fish onto the backs of others then yelling “Poisson d’Avril”, which translates to “April Fish!” In England, the typical custom is to bring celebrations to a halt at noon, with etiquette dictating that pranksters must come clean otherwise risking that they become the April fools.

Recently and even locally, large brands have taken April Fools’ Day as an opportunity to tease their patrons with outrageous concepts and products, only to (most of the time) let them down on April 1st.

What’s your favourite April Fools’ Day prank?

#MaltaDaily