Appendix
A: True
stories from an American!
"Not a lot of people play tricks on April 1st. The ones that are played are
usually rather harmless small ones.
For example, while
you are in the other room, I may say to you "Wow, Look at that giant bald
eagle sitting right outside your window!" When you come running with your
camera, looking for the bald eagle and don't see it there, I would say
"April Fools!" (Hmmm. That gives me an idea.
)
My mom used to try this type of
trick on me often when I was young. As I started getting older, I would get her
back. It was always kind of a game to see who could trick who. My dad was the
easiest to trick, and he usually never tried to get you back.
Some people play more complicated tricks, but of the ones I heard of personally, they were all little "lies" that got someone to come running and/or look for something."
Appendix
B:
Comments on April fool's Day by a Japanese who has been in the
"So far no
one has ever played jokes on me on this day. On April 1st, however, people
sometimes say, "Today is April Fool's Day, so I'll have to be
careful." As this American is mentioning above, it looks like jokes
may be common in a family, especially when the family has small kids. Also,
I guess there are jokes between kids even outside families. I'll check
this."
The American Answered: "Also,
there are jokes between kids even outside of their families. This is most common
in grade school but can also happen in high school or even college."
He
added this: "Yes,
I think April Fool's jokes are quite common among school kids, especially grade
school kids. The jokes are almost always harmless little lies (like I mentioned
before) where you get someone to look for something that isn't there or trick
someone into going on a worthless errand. This is another term used in the
"We have never really played April Fool's tricks in our family, so
that's interesting. Occasionally somebody
may play one at work."
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Newsletter 43 (Japanese)