Thursday Edition of #FunFactFriday – April Fool’s Day

Happy first Friday of the month, AKA #FunFactFriday!! Wait…it’s not the first Friday of the month, or Friday at all for that matter? April Fool’s! Except it’s not April Fool’s Day either…
Since April Fool’s Day happens to be Saturday, we figured we shouldn’t wait until a week after the holiday to post some fun facts about April Fool’s so here they are a couple days early!

• Since 1986, press releases have been released announcing the (non-existent) New York City April Fool’s Day Parade.
• In France, April Fool’s Day is called Poisson d’Avril (April Fish). Children tape a paper fish to their friend’s back and once it is discovered, the prankster yells “Poisson d’Avril.” Some believe April Fool’s customs began in France.
• The earliest association of April 1^st pranks is in the Canterbury Tales by Chaucer.
• Google has often participated in April Fool’s Day jokes, and when the company launched its Gmail service on April 1, everyone assumed it was a joke, which then lead it to additional free publicity since the service is very real.
• Some of the most legendary April Fool’s Day pranks were when the BBC aired a news clip of penguins flying, claiming it was evolution. And showing a video of spaghetti that grew on trees that people actually called in asking how they could grow a spaghetti tree.

What is one of the best April Fool’s Day pranks you’ve ever initiated or been the recipient of? And I’m curious, have any of you PR pros helped a client host an April Fool’s joke?