02 Apr 2014

The first day of April is not an ordinary day. Sometimes called All Fools’ Day, April 1 is an informal holiday celebrated every year.

It is not a national holiday, but is widely recognised and celebrated in various countries as a day when people play practical jokes and hoaxes on one another.

This day is one of the most light-hearted days of the year. Its origins are uncertain. Some see it as a celebration related to the turn of the seasons, while others believe it stems from the adoption of a new calendar.

April Fools’ Day is observed throughout the Western world; practices include sending someone on a ‘fool’s errand,’ or message, looking for things that do not exist, playing pranks and jokes, and trying to get people to believe ridiculous things.

Batswana too have been observing this day for years - ostensibly as a vestige of the colonial times. Pranks are done across and to all ages: from an excited school child waiting to pull a joke on his or her classmates, to friends doing a scary stunt to an elder.

However, since this practice is relatively unknown to the Setswana culture, people tend to take it to heart and sometimes get angry or upset when a joke is played on them.

“This morning I left a dead rat in my mother’s bed while she was sleeping, she screamed out so loud it was just hilarious,” said a University of Botswana student, Tsotso Nkaegeng.

Her family celebrate this day every year and squeeze it for all its few hours’ worth. However, some of the stunts are way over the accepted ‘prank standard’. For example, some learners from one of the local schools placed eggs on an unsuspecting teachers chair and she sat on them.

As the eggs broke, she fell off the chair in shock. The children, laughing uncontrollably, innocently shouted ‘April Fool!’

It is not everyone who celebrates this day. Botswelelo Kemoreng is among those who do not associate themselves with it. “I have never celebrated it because God never lied to us. Satan did. He always wants things done the wrong way so I just do not celebrate it,” she said.

In Britain, an April fool joke is revealed by shouting ‘April fool!’ at the recipient, who becomes the ‘April fool’. A study in the 1950s, by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, found that in the UK, and in countries whose traditions derived from the UK, excluding Australia, the joking ceased at midday.

A person playing a joke after midday becomes the ‘April fool’ themselves. Ends