-14

Wikipedia notes in the page on April Fools' Day that

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, the joking ceased at midday. This continues to be the current practice with the holiday ceasing at noon, after which time it is no longer acceptable to play jokes. Ergo, a person playing a joke after midday is considered the "April fool" themselves.

"Countries whose traditions derived from the UK" surely includes the USA (which isn't mentioned separately anywhere in the page). Therefore, unless the Stack Exchange team are fools (and I don't think it would Be Nice™ to say that they are), the prank should only run from midnight to midday local time.

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    That's true! I had completely forgotten about that. Well argued but for someone somewhere in the world it's not yet midday/noon.
    – Mari-Lou A Слава Україні
    Apr 1, 2019 at 12:09
  • It's a joke. Local scheduling makes it structured, which kind of ruins the fun of it.
    – TheWanderer
    Apr 1, 2019 at 12:20

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The fact that, for me, it wasn't yet April Fool's Day when the event started, made it a kind of meta April Fool's joke. I appreciated it all the more.

Incidentally, I came across the following information:

  • "The Line Islands that are part of Kiribati are in the world's farthest forward time zone, UTC+14:00. The time of day is the same as in the U.S. state of Hawaiʻi, but the date is one day ahead."

  • "The [Howland and Baker] islands have attracted attention as the only land masses in the world associated with UTC−12:00, which is the last area on earth for deadlines with a date to pass."

  • That's a difference of 26 hours, which means that at certain hours, and between certain places, there's actually a difference of two days.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .