The origin of April Fool's Day

As it was called years ago, All Fools' Day is observed in many countries around the world. The origin of April Fool's Day remains clouded in obscurity. But what is clear is that the tradition of a day devoted to foolery had ancient roots. As we look back in time, many ancient predecessors of April Fool's Day are found. There are different versions as to the origin of April Fool's Day.The most widespread theory links the day to Gregorian calendar reform while others involve mythological legends or anthropological explanations.

A French legendary

The most widespread theory about the origin of April Fool's Day links the Gregorian calendar reform.
In 1582 France became the first country to switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. This meant that the beginning of the year was moved from the end of March to January 1. If someone failed to keep up with the change and continued to celebrate the New Year between March 25th and April 1st, various jokes would be played on him. This story might explain why April 1st specifically became the date of the modern holiday. Has it ever occurred to you that the word "fool" is used in many different and often contradictory ways? The Bible says "speak not in the ears of a fool, for he will despise the wisdom of thy words," but Shakespeare often used "fools" in his plays as vehicles for wisdom and telling the truth.

Mythological roots

There have been quite a few attempts to provide mythological explanations for the rise of April Fool's Day. One story dates back to Roman mythology, particularly the myth of Ceres (the Goddess of grain and the harvest) and Proserpina. In Roman mythology Pluto, the God of the Dead, abducted Proserpina and brought her to live with him in the underworld. Proserpina called out to her mother Ceres for help, but Ceres, who could only hear the echo of her daughter's voice, searched in vain for Proserpina. The fruitless search of Ceres for her daughter was commemmorated during the Roman festival of Cerealia and believed by some to have been the mythological antecedent of the fool's errands popular on April 1st.

British folklore linked April Fool's Day to the town of Gotham. According to the legend, it was traditional in the 13th century for any road that the King travelled over to become public property. People in Gotham didn't want to lose their main road and spread a false story to stop the King. A messenger was sent to Gotham after King John learned the people's trick. But when the messenger arrived in Gotham he found the town was full of lunatics who were engaged in foolish activities such as drowning fish or attempting to cage birds in roofless fences. The King fell for the hoax and declared the town too foolish to warrant punishment. And ever since then, April Fool's Day has supposedly commemmorated their trickery.

Anthropological explanations

Anthropologists and cultural historians provide their own explanations for the rise of April Fool's Day. According to them, the celebration traces its roots back to festivals marking the Springtime. Spring is the time of year when the weather becomes fickle, as if Nature is playing tricks on man, and festivals occurring during the Spring traditionally mirrored this sense of whimsy and surprise. They often involved temporary inversions of the social order. Normal behavior no longer governed during the brief moment of transition as the old world died and the new cycle of seasons was born. Practical jokes,trickery, and the turning upside down of status expectations were all allowed. In addition,the linkage between April Foolery and the Springtime is seen in another story that traces the origin of the custom back to the abundance of fish to be found in French streams during early April when the young fish had just hatched. These young fish were easy to fool with a hook and lure. Therefore, the French called them 'Poisson d'Avril' or 'April Fish.' Soon it became customary to fool people on April 1, as a way of celebrating the abundance of foolish fish.

[此贴子已经被作者于2006-4-1 20:38:41编辑过]

April Fool celebrated in different countries

In France today, April first is called "Poisson d'Avril." French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends' backs. When the "young fool" discovers this trick, the prankster yells "Poisson d'Avril!" (April Fish!)In Scotland, April Fool's Day is actually celebrated for two days. The second day is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. It is called Taily Day. The origin of the "kick me" sign can be traced to this observance. Mexico and many Spanish-speaking countries have Innocent's Day, on December 28, to make "innocent" a person with jokes and hoaxes. The origin for the pranking is derived from the Catholic feast day Day of the Holy Innocents for the infants slaughtered by King Herod at the time of Jesus' birth.The New York April Fools' Day Parade was created in 1986 to remedy a glaring omission in the long list of New York's annual ethnic and holiday parades. These events fail to recognize the importance of April 1st, the day designated to commemorate the perennial folly of mankind. In an attempt to bridge that gap and bring people back in touch with their inherent foolishness, the parade annually crowns a King of Fools from the parading look-alikes.

Starving students

A good prank for most university's is to print up a bunch of fake leaflets advertising a non-existent restaurant that has cheap eats and offers free food with the coupons printed on the leaflets. Most colleges have a student union, so the leaflets can be dropped off there and pinned up on various bulletin boards around campus. When this is done, you can sit back and watch the marks wandering around looking for their free lunches.

Go Fish, Goldfish

When you are at someone's house and they are having a party or people over, go to their main bathroom and put about a dozen goldfish in their toliet. This prank is hilarious because people won't know what to do. They either go to the bathroom and flush the fish or they let them stay in there until someone scoops them out and they will end up with a dozen goldfish!

Sticky Glue

You'll need a little bit of lightly sticky glue for this one--I suggest simply using a glue stick and smearing it.Put the glue on someone's seat--imagine the trouble they'll have getting up!

Let's look and see what the Bible says

"Speak not in the ears of a fool: for he will despise the wisdom of thy words."
~Proverbs 23:9~

"For a dream cometh through the multitude of business; and a fool's voice [is known] by multitude of words."
~Ecclesiastes 5:3~

Let's look and see what the celebrities say

"The first of April, some do say, Is set apart for All Fools' Day. But why the people call it so, Nor I, nor they themselves do know. But on this day are people sent On purpose for pure merriment."
~Poor Robin's Almanac (1790)~

"The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year."
~By Mark Twain~

April 1st can be filled with 'giggles and smiles', it is okay to have fun...
but don't do things to "hurt" other people. Treat others as you would want them to treat you...now go and have a bit of harmless fun."

Let's learn some words and expressions

关于fool

Fool: one who counterfeits folly; a professional jester or buffoon in dramas （我们常见的fool即“傻瓜”，但如果读莎士比亚的戏剧如King Lear《李尔王》，你会发现国王身旁常常有一个"Fool"。这时可要记住哦，Fool在这里可不是傻子而是绝顶聪明的“宫廷小丑”，他拿自身的滑稽或外显的愚蠢和疯癫作为护身符，说出一般人不敢或不愿说出来的真话。）

play the fool/act the foll : to act like the idiot or foolishly（胡闹，办傻事）

fool around : to spend time doing nothing useful （虚度光阴，游手好闲）

Fool's haste is no spead : 欲速则不达

make an April fool of sb : 把某人当作愚人节恶作剧的对象

fool's erand : a fruitless mission or undertaking （徒劳无用的工作）

fool's paradise : happiness founded on a illusion （虚幻的美梦，不可实现的希望）

关于“玩笑，骗局”的表达

hoax: an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real;an outrageous claim that is publicly exposed as a lie or deception （根据英文释义，汉语中的“骗局”与hoax很贴切，常常指公众群体受到愚弄。在西方，媒体往往在愚人节这天制造一些出格的hoax给公众开玩笑）。

例句：I hoaxed you into believing that the mouse has eaten the cat （我骗你相信老鼠吃了猫）。

prank: a mischievous trick （恶作剧，与hoax相比，prank更侧重于朋友之间或熟人之间的玩笑或恶作剧。搞恶作剧的人常常被称作prankster）

例句：He likes playing pranks on the fellows around （他喜欢搞些恶作剧给周围的人）。

practical joke : 与“verbal joke”（耍嘴皮开玩笑）相对应，practical joke更侧重于行动。当然，既然已有古训“Action speaks louder than words”，那么practical joke一定不是小儿科式的低级玩笑，它需要搞恶作剧的人多费些心思，使玩笑更高明一点。

例句：The first day of April is devoted to practical jokes （人们喜欢在愚人节开玩笑）。

April fish : 愚人节被愚弄的人，法国人愚弄他们朋友的方式就是在朋友的背后贴上一条纸做的鱼，当有人发现这个恶作剧时，他们就会大笑着喊:“Poisson d'Avril”（四月鱼）！这一说法缘于四月份的鱼刚刚孵化出来，很容易上钩被捉。