We all celebrate the 1st of April as “April Fools Day”. It is a day to crack lame jokes, fool around with people and play some healthy pranks on unsuspected individuals. We all like to participate and take an active part in all the fun activities happening throughout the day. But have you wondered when did it start? 

The origin goes back to 1582 when France shifted from a Juliann calendar to the Gregorian calendar. In the Juliann calendar, the new year began with the spring equinox around April 1. Some people were slow to get the news or failed to recognize that the start of the new year was moved to January 1 and continued to celebrate it in the last week of March. These people were called April fools for not recognizing the shift and also referred to as “poisson d’avril” (April Fish: An individual who is gullible like a fish).

But in present times not only individuals but big corporations are taking part in this tradition. Brands try to prank their customers by launching fake products or misdirect them into hoaxes. 

Following are some I found interesting: 

Volkswagen:  The German automaker announced in a press release that it is changing its US operations name to “Voltswagen”. They mentioned in the release that this is to show the company's commitment towards the electrification of their product offering. This prank fooled the world and made headlines all across the globe. 

Ola: They have launched a fully autonomous electric flying car called “Ola AirPro”. The ad is a spoof of Apple's launch events. It shows companies various level officers explaining how they have developed this revolutionary new product. How the car can be lifted with one hand and you can part it on building rooftops. This is a funny take on the rising fuel prices, the problem of finding parking spots and our problem of traffic jams.

MTV India: We all know this sentence which is presented to us in different parts of our life, it goes something like this: “Bas ye sal mehnat kar le, next sal toh maze hi maze”. This video shows parents making suggestions during various parts of their kids' life. If you feel like you are the character in the video, I can feel you friend. Do read the caption on their Instagram post.

Did you get pranked? or Did someone fool you to do anything unusual today?