It's April Fool's Day today. What do you have in store? Will you leave a rubber spider in your secretary's draw. How about a mouse in their coffee or a fake ink stain on some important documents? Or what about calling someone to ask if their refrigerator is running just so you can tell them to go catch it -- this used to be the old time favourite April Fool's joke.

But are we still, as Bermudians call, "tricksters'' on April 1 or has the day of pulling pranks ceased. And where did April Fool's Day come from in the first place? "The real funny thing about April Fool's Day or All Fool's Day is that we don't know for sure just how the custom of fooling people began,'' according to the book "Holiday Hullabaloo -- Facts, Jokes and Riddles'' collected by E.

Richard Churchill with Eric and Sean Churchill.

"Some say it is related to an old Roman festival that was celebrated on March 25. The day maybe connected with the fact that the vernal equinox comes on March 21 and was a New Year for many people.

"Playing jokes may even be taken as a sign of joy at the end of winter and the coming of spring.

"Most likely the custom is related to the fact that in 1582 the French made a great change in their calender. This change moved New Year's Day from April back to January 1, where it is now.

"Not everyone approved of the change, and some did not even know about it for quite some time. As a result, the first of April became a time of poking fun.'' The book adds that the French also noted that about the first of April a number of young fish began to appear in the streams.

These foolish fish were not so wise and wary as their elders and were easier caught. Thus April 1 became a time for the catching of the less wise and more foolish.

"Any person who was caught or tricked on April 1 was called an April fish.

Perhaps the French children were the winners in all this. It became a custom to give the children a chocolate fish as an April Fool's Day present.

"Sometime in the 1700's the English took up the habit of April Fooling one another. This had no connection with the French calender change, because the English did not change their calender until much later than the French.'' "For the English, April Fool's Day became known as a time for sending the less wise on fool's errands. Solemn Englishmen sent children on searches for hen's teeth and on other such impossible tasks. Today's pranksters also delight in sending the unwary in search of the impossible.

According to "Holiday Hullabaloo'' the fool's errand, or the impossible search, seems to have long been a part of this special day. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years the people of India celebrated the Feast of Huli on March 31, and unwary people found themselves going on ridiculous errands.

The Scots delighted in sending a letter by an unsuspecting messenger they called a gowk.

"Each person who got the letter read it, then sent the April gowk on down the road to another person. Of course, that's just what the letter told them to do.

"The variety of pranks played over the years is fantastic -- there are a few of the common and perhaps not so common April Fool's pranks of which we have heard.

"The telephone has been a boon to pranksters. Thousands of people have been called and asked whether their refrigerator was running. When they said it was they were told they had better stop it before it got away.'' Mid-Ocean News journalist Roger Crombie confessed that he was not much of an April Foolster "but I know that it is English tradition to play your tricks before 12 p.m. and if you don't then you're the fool.

"As a reporter all my life I have wanted to run a gigantic front page hoax on April 1. A couple of years ago April 1 was a Friday, which is when the Mid-Ocean comes out and I forget, so now I have to wait another seven years. I thought it was a good idea.'' Mr. Cromby remembered a few good tricks he had heard. "In England last year on April 1 BMW ran a fake advertisement for windscreen wipers on head lights.

It looked like a real ad but it was fake and tens of thousands of people called to get them installed.

"Also from England in 1956 or 1957 a weekly news programme on the television ran a story about a spaghetti tree and they fixed up a tree that had spaghetti draped on it. In my house the opinion was split as to whether it was a hoax because it was on in the evening. Half of the family felt that the 12 p.m.

rule applied. But of course it was fake.'' Comedian Stuart Doyle remembered a good April Fool's prank he pulled when he was stationed in Germany with the army. It lasted for four months.

"When I was stationed in the army in Germany this friend of mine brought a Volkswagen and all he talked about was the great gas mileage he was going to get. In those days Volkswagens were different because they did not have a gauge but they did have a handle on the floor in the front by the gas pedal for reserve.

"With his wife's help some other guys and myself would fill his gas tank regularly and he was always wondering when he had to fill his tank. He would say I can't believe it -- I haven't run out of gas today and I drove from this place to that place. He was waiting and waiting to get to the reserve and his mileage was going up and up.

"Then we started letting his gas out and now he couldn't believe the gas was running out so quickly.'' Mr. Doyle added: "That was the longest spread-out April Fool's joke. When my friend finally found out he was really angry but then he realised how much work we put into it.'' Principal Dale Butler said April Fool's Day used to be really big in schools -- kids used to look forward to that activity.

"It is still being done but not as much as it used to be. When I was a kid we did things like look up in the sky -- there's a jumbo jet -- and we took a great delight in saying you're a real fool for trying to play tricks after noon time. These things are still being done in schools and at home.

"There are still drastic things being done overseas but we haven't really had that problem.''