The origins of April Fool’s Day appear to be a mystery. Some say it began after the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar in the 16^th Century, as a derogatory term for people still clinging to the outmoded Julian Calendar.

Others speculate that “April Fool” was first applied to farmers who began planted their crops in April, instead of May, which was considered the “official” start of summer in many pre-Christian cultures.

Whatever its beginnings, April Fool’s Day has a rich legacy of pranks, jokes, and hoaxes. Here are a couple of the most famous:

• The Swiss spaghetti harvest. In 1957 the BBC reported that a mild Swiss winter, combined with a decline in the “spaghetti weevil” population, had resulted in a record crop of spaghetti in Switzerland. Swiss farmers were shown happily harvesting spaghetti from trees, and many viewers called in to find out how to grow their own spaghetti trees.

• Reduced gravity.Sir Patrick Moore, a British astronomer, told the BBC in 1976 that an unusual alignment of the planets Jupiter and Pluto would result in lower gravity on April 1 at 9:47 a.m. He urged people to jump up into the air to experience the “strange floating sensation” that the phenomenon would produce. The BBC received calls from listeners claiming to feel the effects.