Unfortunately, this will be the final year of the Clarion as the students and staff on our team are a part of the great resignation. 

APRIL FOOLS!

People all across the globe celebrated April Fools’ day in true fashion by playing pranks on one another and showing the silliest of sides. However, before we get into the best of pranks performed on this quirky day, let’s learn about how it came to be. 

According to an April Fools’ day article published by History.com, “Some historians speculate that April Fools’ Day dates back to 1582, when France switched from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar, as called for by the Council of Trent in 1563”. 

For those late to the news, or were slow to recognize that the beginning of the new year jumped to Jan. 1, they proved to be the butt of the jokes and were nicknamed, “April Fools” since they were still celebrating the new year with extravagant parties the last week of March through the first of April. 

Historians have also found connections between April Fools’ Day and previously celebrated festivals, like Hilaria, which was a popular celebration in ancient Rome by members of the cult, Cybele. 

This roman celebration “involved people dressing up in disguises and mocking fellow citizens and even magistrates and was said to be inspired by the Egyptian legend of Isis, Osiris and Seth,” History.com said. 

The article also found a third explanation for this unusual holiday comes from mother nature’s lack of consistency in spring. 

“There’s also speculation that April Fools’ Day was tied to the vernal equinox, or first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when Mother Nature fooled people with changing, unpredictable weather.”

For all time best pranks according to History.com, the 1997 Swiss farmers might take the cake. A group of local farmers pranked their community by reporting a “record spaghetti crop” and even showed footage of people “harvesting noodles from trees.” 

However, History.com’s article believes Taco Bell’s 1996 prank was the ultimate way to dupe Americans across the country. 

“Taco Bell, the fast-food restaurant chain, announced it had agreed to purchase Philadelphia’s Liberty Bell and intended to rename it the Taco Liberty Bell,” the article states. 

A recap for this year’s ultimate pranks and April Fools’ participants comes from a Cnet article by Amanda Kooser.

• Twitter’s nonexistent edit button
• Dordle, a play on the original Wordle word game, using obscure words such as “hapax”
• The Omaha Steaks meat brand commercializing ‘meat sweats perspirant’
• Flour company King Arthur’s freshly baked multigrain mittens
• The National Weather Service converting all temperatures to Kelvin to “avoid confusion” between fahrenheit and celsius 
• Little Tikes introducing their first miniature version of a regular 9-5 cuticle
• 7/11’s new size, the “Tiny Gulp”,  in contrast to their heavily popularized “Big Gulp”
• Flight company, Emirates, introducing “EmirEats” where you can enjoy “authentic cuisine from anywhere in the world, without stepping on a plane”
• Sun-Maid’s “grape jerky”
• Hellman’s Butterfinger streaked mayo, “a new crispety crunchety twist to your favorite mayo” that can be added to any side
• Last but not least, DuoLingo’s Abductions going public, a subtle reminder to all of it’s language learning users to not miss a single practice… or else. 

For Lincoln Southeast’s Issac Raidman (12) the best April Fools’ prank was between his mom and dad.
“Once my step dad put ketchup on his finger and pretended to get cut and tricked my mom,” he said. 

If he were the ones to be pranking others however, Raidman says he would do so with an unusual and kind twist. 

“I would want to trick someone into thinking I had to cancel plans and then show up to their house with goodies,” Raidman said.