Mother's Day is a celebration honoring one's own mother, as well as motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in the months of March or May. It complements similar celebrations honoring family members, such as Father's Day and Siblings Day.
The celebration of Mother's Day began in the United States in the early 20th century; it is not related to the many celebrations of mothers and motherhood that have occurred throughout the world over thousands of years, such as the Greek cult to Cybele, the Roman festival of Hilaria, or the Christian Mothering Sunday celebration (originally a celebration of the mother church, not motherhood).
Despite this, in some countries Mother's Day has become synonymous with these older traditions.
Mother's Day
A mother posing with her card
Observed by
Many countries
Type
Secular
Significance
Honors mothers and motherhood
Date
Many dates; most commonly the second Sunday of May
April Fool's Day is a holiday where people play pranks on each other all across the world, and has been celebrated since the Roman times.
While you might be switching the salt and the sugar, or putting a plastic spider in someone's tea, there have been some truly incredible pranks that fooled the entire world.
Here are our 10 favourite April Fool's Day pranks - see if you can beat these!
10. In 1980 the BBC reported that Big Ben, in order to keep up with the times, was going to be given a digital readout. The announcement shocked listeners, who protested the change. The BBC Japanese service also announced the clock hands would be sold to the first four listeners to contact them. One Japanese seaman in the mid-Atlantic immediately radioed in a bid.
9. In 2007, images of an 8-inch mummified creature resembling a fairy were posted on the website of the Lebanon Circle Magik Co. The site explained how the creature had been found by a man walking his dog along an old Roman road in rural Derbyshire. By April 1 the Lebanon Circle website had received tens of thousands of visitors and hundreds of emails.
But, at the end of April 1, Dan Baines, the owner of the site, confessed the fairy was a hoax. He had used his skills as a magician's prop-maker to create the creature. Baines later reported that, even after his confession, he continued to receive numerous emails from people who refused to accept the fairy wasn't real.
8. A barge towing a giant iceberg appeared in Sydney Harbor in April 1978. Dick Smith, a local adventurer and millionaire businessman, had been loudly promoting his scheme to tow an iceberg from Antarctica, saying he was going to carve the berg into small ice cubes, which he would sell to the public for ten cents each. These cubes, fresh from the pure waters of Antarctica, were promised to improve the flavour of any drink they cooled.
Local radio stations provided blow-by-blow coverage of the scene, but when it started to rain the firefighting foam and shaving cream the berg was really made of washed away, uncovering the white plastic sheets beneath.
7. In 1860 people throughout London received the following invitation: "Tower of London: Admit Bearer and Friend to view annual ceremony of Washing the White Lions on Sunday, April 1, 1860. Admittance only at White Gate." By noon a large crowd had gathered outside the tower. They were disappointed to find that lions hadn't been kept in the tower for centuries, let alone white lions.
6. Burger King published a full page advertisement in USA Today in 1998. The advert announced a new item on their menu: the Left-Handed Whopper. Especially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans, the new burger included the same ingredients as the original Whopper, but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees.
Thousands of customers went into restaurants to request the new sandwich, while many others requested their own 'right handed' version.
5. On 1 April 1972, newspaper headlines around the world announced the dead body of the Loch Ness Monster had been found. A team of zoologists from Yorkshire's Flamingo Park Zoo, who were at Loch Ness searching for proof of Nessie's existence, had discovered the carcass floating in the water the day before. Initial reports claimed it weighed a ton and a half and was 15½ feet long. Upon inspection, Nessie turned out to be a bull elephant seal.
The zoo's education officer, John Shields, confessed he had been responsible for placing the body in the Loch. The seal had died the week before, and he had shaved off its whiskers, padded its cheeks with stones, and kept it frozen for a week, before dumping it in the Loch. The seal's body was displayed at the Flamingo Park Zoo for a few days before being properly disposed of.
4. In 1977 the Guardian published a seven-page "special report" about San Serriffe, a small country located in the Indian Ocean consisting of several islands that make the shape of a semi-colon. The two main islands were called Upper Caisse and Lower Caisse. They did an in-depth series of articles on the history, geography and daily life on these idyllic islands.
The Guardian's phones rang all day as readers wanted more information about the perfect-sounding fictional holiday spot, and the hoax began a tradition in newspapers to try and fool their readers.
3. During an interview on BBC Radio 2, on the morning of 1 April 1976, the astronomer Patrick Moore announced that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to take place. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would reduce the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation.
The BBC received hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported she and her 11 friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.
2. The best known public prank is the 1957 news show broadcast by Panorama. It was a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. This was apparently because of an unusually mild winter and the "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil," with video footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets. The show said: "For those who love this dish, there's nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti."
Hundreds of people phoned the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this query the BBC simply said: "Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best."
1. In Sweden, in 1962, there was only one television channel, and it was shown in black and white. The station announced that their "technical expert," Kjell Stensson, was going to tell people how to view color images on their black-and-white sets. Researchers, he said, had recently discovered that covering your television screen with a pair of tights would cause the light to bend in such a way that it would appear as if the image was in color. All viewers had to do, Stensson said, was to cut open a pair of stockings and tape them over the screen of their television set.
Thousands of viewers fell for the hoax. Many say today that they remember their parents (their fathers in particular) rushing through the house trying to find stockings to place over the TV set. Regular colour broadcasts began in Sweden on April 1, 1970.
While parked late at night on a lovers' lane on an isolated country road, a teenage girl waits for her boyfriend to return to the car after going outside to relieve himself. After waiting what seems like an eternity, she finally hears a sound. But it's not footprints, it's something scraping back and forth across the roof of the vehicle. Then she finds out what it is.
After consenting to give a ride to a good samaritan who helped her fix a flat tire, a lone female driver suddenly remembers she has a very important appointment, apologizes, and races off without him. Later that day, she finds the man has left his briefcase in the back seat of her car. She opens it and receives the shock of her life.
As told on the Internet, the sad, sad story of Carmen Winstead, a 17-year-old student allegedly bullied and pushed down a sewer drain by a gang of mean girls from her school. Poor Carmen died of her injuries, but that didn't prevent her from returning to wreak painful revenge on her assailants — one by one.
A family comes home to find their doberman pincer choking in the living room. They take the dog to an emergency veterinarian and return home, only to receive a frantic call from the vet, who tells them to get out of the house, and fast! Why? Well, it has to do with what the dog was choking on.
A child who fell asleep while eating sweets in his bed began to complain of severe headaches and facial itching, so was taken to a hospital. Upon examining him and taking X-rays of his skull, doctors discovered that ants had crawled into his head through his ear canal and infested his brain!
A long time ago, before adequate technology for detecting patients' critical life signs existed, an elderly woman was pronounced dead and scheduled for burial. On the day of the funeral, family members literally had to pry her unembalmed body from the clutches of her husband, who insisted she wasn't really dead.
Honeymooners notice a strange odor in their hotel suite and call the front desk to see if they can switch rooms. No, they're told, the hotel is full and they'll have to sleep at least one night in the smelly room. When housekeepers arrive the next day to clean the room, they make a grisly discovery.
After a lavish wedding in a stately mansion, members of the wedding party decide to play a game of hide-and-seek. It isn't long before everyone is found — everyone, that is, except for the bride. Twenty-four hours later, she's still missing. What happened to the bride?
A family receives a potted cactus as a gift and gives it place of honor in their living room. Weeks later, someone notices that it seems to be bulging at the seams and... quivering! The strange phenomenon continues as they try to figure out what to do, when all of a sudden the cactus bursts open, showering the room — and everyone in it — withvenomous insects!
Every bride-to-be wants to look great on her wedding day, and Jenna was no exception. Hoping to acquire a perfect nut-brown skin tone to contrast with her white wedding dress, Jenna began visiting a tanning salon daily to accomplish it, sometimes doing multiple sessions in a single day. Sadly, she didn't live to see her wedding day.
hi guys today
i am just gonna tell you about some scary stories .
For the audience who are soft and easily scared - you may want to skip this
but still please post a comment on what all i should post .
I'm kinda running out of ideas .
Once upon a time there was a beautiful young girl in a small town just south of Farmersburg. Her parents had to go to the city for the night, so they left their daughter home alone, protected by the faithful family dog. They instructed her to lock all the doors and secure the house after they left. She did as she was told, nervous about being left alone, but confident that if anything happened her dog would protect her.
A 15 year old girl was babysitting her little sister while her parents went out to a party. It was a cold, dark, snowy night. She had just curled up on the couch to watch TV when she noticed a tall figure approaching the sliding glass door near where she was sitting. It was a wrinkled old man, and he was staring at her. Then he pulled a shiny object out of his coat pocket.
A babysitter taking care of two small children called their parents late in the evening to ask for permission to cover up the life-size clown statue in the corner of the family room. "It's not that I don't like it," she said. "It just kind of freaks me out with nobody else here. It's hard to watch TV." The parents' reaction to her request freaked her out even more. "WHAT clown statue???" they asked, frantically. "Dial 911! Call the police!! DO IT NOW!!!"
In this classic urban legend dating from the 1960s, a teenage babysitter calls the police after receiving prank phone calls from a creepy stranger. "Have you checked the children?" the man keeps asking. While waiting for a patrol car to arrive, the babysitter has a terrifying realization: the stranger is calling her from inside the house!
A teenage boy drove his date to a dark and deserted Lovers' Lane for a make-out session. After turning on the radio for mood music, he leaned over and began kissing the girl. The music suddenly stopped and an announcer's voice came on, warning that a convicted murderer had justescaped from the state insane asylum.
One night a woman went out for cocktails with her girlfriends. After leaving the bar late at night, she got in her car and headed for home on a deserted highway. Several minutes later, she noticed a lone pair of headlights in her rear-view mirror. It was another car — the only other car on the road — approaching at a terrifying pace.
They stood before the bathroom mirror in dim candlelight, chanting in unison: "Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary." The thirteenth time they said it, something very odd and frightening happened. Not all of them lived through it. Some of those who didwished they hadn't.
A stylish teenage girl who has grown tired of spending hours a day teasing and lacquering her hair to attain the "beehive" hairdo so popular in the 1960s decides instead to wash it in sugar water and let it to harden into the preferred style. Before going to bed each night, she carefully wrapped a towel around her sugared hair and even slept on a special pillow so as not to muss it. Then one morning she failed to come downstairs for breakfast.
As if we needed proof that horrible things happen in the dark, this unnerving tale about a murderous madman lurking unseen in a dimly lit dormitory room demonstrates that sometimes what you don't know canhurt you — even if it chooses for the moment to hide and wait.
According to this legend Mr. Rogers, the popular children’s show host, was once a Navy SEAL sniper in Vietnam responsible for numerous deaths. It goes on to say that the only reason he always wears a sweater is to cover up all of his tattoos. As you may have guessed, Mr. Rogers was never a Navy SEAL and he had no tattoos, in fact he was never even in the military. This isn’t the first time, however, that this rumor has circulated concerning a clean cut celebrity.
2
Bloody Mary
Possibly one of the most popular urban legends told among school age children having sleep overs, according to this myth if you turn out the lights, look into a mirror, and say Bloody Mary three times (in some versions the number of times differs) then you will summon the spirit of Mary Worth, a woman who was supposedly executed for being a witch.
3
Kennedy and the Jelly Donut
The legend goes that Kennedy made a trip to Germany back in the 60′s in an attempt to connect with the German people. While giving a speech in the capital he told the crowd, “Ich bin ein Berliner” or “I am a Berliner”. Apparently though, a “berliner” is also a type of German pastry. Since then numerous stories have circulated claiming that he was practically laughed off stage afterwards. The truth is, however, that that the crowd understood him perfectly and nary a single eyebrow was raised at the statement.
4
The Dissolving Tooth
There are numerous urban legends involving Coca Cola. In fact, there are so many that these legends all now have their own category known as “Colklore”. The most popular is that if you were to leave a tooth in a cup of coke overnight by morning the tooth would be completely dissolved. Like most of the other legends involving the popular drink this is totally untrue.
5
The Good Samaritan
Circulating for years this legend tells the story of a motorist who stops on the side of the road to help someone fix their flat tire. The person being helped then asks the motorist for his address to send a reward. Several weeks later the motorist receives $10,000 in the mail. Over the years this story has been attributed to several celebrities, most recently Donald Trump.
6
Walt Disney is Cryogenically Frozen
This is another one of those popular stories that most of us have probably heard. It says that Disney supposedly had his dead body frozen in hopes that future technology could bring him back to life. Unfortunately for all the gossip magazines though, records show that Disney was cremated in 1966.
7
Sewer Gators
This story tells the tale of how several alligators were brought up from Florida to be kept as pets in New York City. After they got too big and violent they escaped into the sewers where they now live freely. Dating back to the 1930s and spread by sensationalist newspapers the story is completely untrue yet continues to be circulated to this day.
8
The Vanishing Hitchhiker
Possibly one of the oldest urban legends still being told the story tells of a motorist who picks up a female hitchhiker on a lonely stretch of road. He then drives her home only to find that she has disappeared from his backseat. After knocking on her door he is told the girl died in a car accident years ago in the very same spot that he picked her up.
9
The Kidney Heist
Immortalized on TV and the internet, this legend dates back to 1997 when an email was circulated warning people of a crazy new crime wave catching on in big cities. It usually involves a traveling business man being bought drinks by a stranger only to wake up in a tub covered in ice with a phone next to him telling him to call 911. Covered in blood he later learns that his kidney has been removed by criminals who intend to sell it on the black market. Although the story almost sounds feasible with all the craziness you see on the nightly news, even after the National Kidney Foundation asked victims to contact them no one has come forward and the email has been written off as a hoax.
10
The Killer in the Backseat
This is one of those popular urban legends that just never seems to die. It tells the story of a woman who is driving down a dark road at night only to have a strange car pull up behind her and start flashing its lights. As she takes off on her exit and approaches her home the stranger continues to follow her. She pulls up in her driveway ready to make a mad dash to her front door only to hear the stranger behind her get out of his car and yell to her to lock her door and call 911. Only after the police arrive does she learn that the stranger was actually trying to protect her. In her backseat was a man holding a butcher knife ready to stab her to death. The stranger had noticed his shadowy form and started flashing his lights to get her attention after which the figure slouched back down in the seat.
11
Babysitter and the Man Upstairs
This urban legend tells the story of a baby sitter that starts getting phone calls from a strange man asking her questions that get progressively more personal and conclude with whether or not she has checked the children. She ends up calling the police who proceed to trace the strangers call. They immediately call the babysitter back and tell her to get the kids out of the house immediately because the calls are coming from within the homes itself. It is at this moment that police arrive to find a man in the upstairs room where the kids are sleeping but it is already too late as all of the kids have been brutally murdered.
12
Humans Can Lick Too
In what is probably one of the more disturbing urban legends out there a girl is given a dog by her parents to keep her company while they are away. One night she was awakened by a dripping sound. She got up and went to turn off the tap properly after which she came back to bed while letting her hand hang over the edge as the dog licked her fingers. The dripping sound didn’t stop though so this scenario played out several more times with the girl returning to bed and falling asleep with the dog licking her fingers yet again. The final time, however, she decides to try locating where exactly the drip is coming from. She looks around only to find the sound emerging from within her cupboard. She opens it up to find her dog with its neck cut and a note saying “humans can lick too”.
13
Aren’t You Glad You Didn’t Turn On The Light?
Widely circulated on college campuses this legend tells the story of two girls about to have a big test the next day. One of the girls gets invited to a party the night before and when she returns to her dorm room she doesn’t want to wake her friend so she goes straight to bed. When she wakes up in the morning she rolls over to find her friend had been brutally murdered during the night and written on the wall in blood is the phrase, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights?”
14
The Jedi Religion Form
This far reaching hoax claims that if enough people fill out “Jedi” as their religion on their census forms the government will have to make it an official religion. In fact, at one point thousands of people tried to do just that but to no avail. Just because a large number of people check something on a census form is not grounds for introducing it as “official”.
15
Snuff Films
For those of you who don’t know what snuff films are, they are movies in which a person is murdered during the course of filming. Usually they are said to be funded by twisted rich people but as of yet not a single snuff film has been legitimately found in spite of numerous rewards going to anyone with information on their production.