April 1st orApril Fools Day is a day of trickery? in the United States. Young students to older professionals? will use this day as a time to play funny tricks? on their fellow students and colleagues?. While sometimes these tricks get a bit mean, the day is really meant for playing light-hearted jokes on other people.
One of the best April Fools jokes I have ever seen was at my university. My English professor? came into the class two days after we had all taken an exam and saidI have some very bad news for everyone. It seems that either I am not a good teacher or no one in this class is studying hard enough. I regret ?to inform? you that everyone in this class has failed the exam. Since this was one of three major? exams we had to take in the class, failing the test meant that our final? grades would be very low. Everyone in the class had this near death look on their face?. The rest of the class - 45 minutes to be exact?- everyone just sat shocked? waiting for the period to end. Just to note, I had studied several days for the exam and felt confident? I was going to do very well.
At the end of the class, our English professor said, You guys? need to study harder next time. This class is not a joke. With that everyone walked out not saying a word. Later that evening, I checked? my universities telephone message system? and there was a message from my professor. I was really nervous? thinking that he would ask me to visit him in his office (maybe I did worse than everyone else I thought).
I clicked #1 on the message system? and waited to hear what he had to say. His message was simple,April Fools Ladies and Gentleman. I cant believe you all feel for it. Hahaha. You all did well on the exam and I am proud of? you. Hahaha!
Happy April Fools Day Everyone!
April Fools Day is traditionally a day to play practical jokes on others, send people on fools errands, and fool the unsuspecting. No one knows how this holiday began but it was thought to have originated in France.
The closest point in time that can be identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in France. New Years was celebrated on March 25 and celebrations lasted until April 1st. When New Years Day as changed from March 25 to January 1st in the mid-1560s by King Charles IX, there were some people who still celebrated it on April 1st and those people were called April Fools.
Pranks performed on April Fools Day range from the simple, (such as saying, Your shoes untied!), to the elaborate. Setting a roommates alarm clock back an hour is a common gag. The news media even gets involved. For instance, a British short film once shown on April Fools Day was a fairly detailed documentary about spaghetti farmers and how they harvest their crop from the spaghetti trees. Whatever the prank, the trickster usually ends it by yelling to his victim, April Fool!
April Fools Day is a for-fun-only observance. Nobody is expected to buy gifts or to take their significant other out to eat in a fancy restaurant. Nobody gets off work or school. Its simply a fun little holiday, but a holiday on which one must remain forever vigilant, for he may be the next April Fool!
Each country celebrates April Fools differently. In France, the April Fools is called April Fish (Poisson dAvril). The French fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends backs and when some discovers a this trick, they yell Poisson dAvril!.
In England, tricks can be played only in the morning. If a trick is played on you, you are a noodle. In Scotland, April Fools Day is 48 hours long and you are called an April Gowk, which is another name for a cuckoo bird. The second day in Scotlands April Fools is called Taily Day and is dedicated to pranks involving the buttocks. Taily Days gift to posterior posterity is the still-hilarious Kick Me sign.
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.
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.
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.
