What is April Fools' Day and why do we play practical jokes?

WATCH out for jokers to avoid becoming an April fool this morning. What is the day all about? What are the best pranks?

April Fools' DayGetty

April Fools' Day falls on April 1 every year

What is April Fools' Day? 

The day, also known as All Fools' Day, is a light-hearted celebration of trickery and practical jokes around the world. 

On April 1 every year, pranksters across the country play jokes on their friends and colleagues before shouting out 'April fool!'   

Newspapers and media organisations also get into the spirit of the day by publishing humourous hoax stories to entertain and confuse their readers. 

Remember that you can only play jokes on people until noon on April 1. After midday, the joker who plays the prank becomes the April fool. 

How did April Fools' Day start? 

Unsurprising for a day that revels in confusion, the origins of April Fools' Day are not known for sure. 

Some people trace it back to a decision to change the start of the calendar year from the end of March to January 1 in the 16th Century.

According to this theory, the folk who mistakenly continued to celebrate the new year on the old date were seen as fools.

Others believe that April Fools' Day is linked to historic spring festivals that celebrate misrule, mayhem and jokes. 

These "renewal festivals" exist in different cultures and often involve disguises and playing pranks, according to the Museum of Hoaxes.

For example, Ancient Romans used to celebrate a practical joking festival to welcome spring at about the time of the Vernal Equinox.

The first literary reference to April Fools' Day is thought to be in Chaucer's the Nun's Priest's Tale from around 1392. 

What are some of the best known pranks? 

In 1957 a BBC spoof documentary famously tricked the public into believing that spaghetti was grown on trees. 

In 1962 Sweden's SVT announced that viewers could turn black and white broadcasts into colour ones by putting a nylon stocking over the screen. 

In 1977 the Guardian published supplement on San Serriffe, fictional several semi-colon-shaped islands in the Indian Ocean. What are some popular jokes? 

In 1980 the BBC confused viewers again by reporting that Big Ben was going to start giving a digital readout of the time. 

In 1989 Richard Branson landed a fake UFO to the shock of crowds and passersby near London. 

What are some traditional pranks? 

Popular childhood jokes include filling the salt shaker with sugar, hiding a whoopee cushion and putting cling film over the toilet seat. 

Pranksters in schools and offices sometimes try to change the time by bringing the clocks forward by an hour. 

Other common jokes include covering a bar of soap in clear nail polish and filling a room with balloons.