April Fool’s Day is traditionally a day to play practical jokes on others, send people on fool’s errands and fool the unsuspecting. No one knows how this holiday began, but it was thought to have originated in France. In the 16th century, people celebrated New Year’s Day from March 25 to April 1. On this day people will often see some strange but interesting things and some strange and fake scientific results that always are put there to mislead the public every year.
In China, some people (especially students) quite enjoy this special festival. The children have the excuse to do some funny things, which they are afraid to do on normal days, without being punished. They can put mustard onto toothbrushes and give them to their parents or friends; tell their friends that the girls they have a crush on are waiting for them in the park; lie to their friends, telling them that they do not have to do their homework or that there are no classes on this day. They do this just for fun: there is no harm from these kids. Nowadays, there are more and more pressures that come from different areas. People do need some joys in their life, and April Fool’s Day is the best way to make some jokes.
In No.7 High School (one of the high schools in China), class three and class four have the same math teacher and the same English teacher. Because of that, these two classes have a wonderful relationship after classes. On April 1, 2011, the class monitors of these two classes planned to play a joke on the teachers. Class three has English class at 9 a.m., class four has math class at 9 a.m. So they chose to change class before 9 a.m. Students in class three went to class four and students in class four went to class three.
When the class began, students sat in seats like normal days except the class is different. The English teacher felt a little strange a few minutes later. Then she went out to see the schedule. “I did not walk into a wrong class. But why do I feel some areas are different?” the English teacher said. Class three and class four have the same English teacher, so the English teacher knew all of the students in class three and class four. But she felt a little strange this day: she thought she should teach the other class. No one answered her. Only some students sitting in the back grinned with delight without saying anything. Then the teacher continued the class.
When there was five minutes left for this class, the class monitor asked the teacher, ” Hey, Ms. Wang, there is something wrong. I think this class should be a math class, not an English class.” Then all of the students exploded with laughter. The English teacher did not know what happened. After laughing, the students said, “We changed class with class three, and happy April Fool’s Day!”
A few years later, when people who took part in this joke are talking about it, they still laugh loudly.
