April Fool's Day
The origins of April Fool's Day are not entirely clear. It is an unusual festival in that nothing is actually celebrated; it is simply a brief period in early spring when lunacy is permitted and shoelaces are fallaciously reported as being in a less than acceptable state of bow-knottedness.
The nearest investigators have come to a sensible reason has to do with the change to the Gregorian calendar in the 1500s. It started in France where, previously, the New Year had started on March 25 and New Year Week ended on April 1 – not that the event was any cause for messing about. However, when the new year date of January 1 was introduced, with-it travellers from the cities found that even years afterwards, word of the change had either not reached the peasantry in the countryside (no Twitter, TV or newspapers in those days), or they just stubbornly refused to change. For this lack of nous they were made fun of and sent on 'fool's errands' – such as locating a left-handed hammer.
This harmless fun evolved into the playing of pranks on that particular day and in the 17th century the practice spread to England and Scotland before heading for America, whose inhabitants are always ready to celebrate anything. In England, and a few other countries, it is deemed sufficient to allocate only the morning to this tomfoolery, but in Scotland two full days are given over to prank-perpetrating. On the second day the emphasis is very much on making fun of the posterior of the victim and is called Taily Day. It is also the origin of the 'Kick me' sign.
Somewhat oddly, the Mexicans celebrate foolishness on December 28. It started out as a commemoration of a very sad occasion – the so-called Slaughter of the Innocents by Herod, but gradually the atmosphere lightened (perhaps there was a growing consensus among parents of Mexican teenagers that perhaps, after all, Herod had been thinking along the right lines) until it took on all the appearances of a Fool's Day.
In Rome, the event was called the Festival of Hilaria or the Roman Laughing Festival (Hey, Julius – your thongs are undone!). And in Portugal, another two-day nation, the Sunday/Monday before Lent is given over to japes including the merry chucking of flour. In India, the Huli Festival on March 31 involves practical jokes and smearing victims with coloured goo.
There is a tantalising indication that the outbreak of early spring madness may have a much older origin. In his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer included a story about two fools, The Nun's Priest's Tale, which took place on March 32 (a jest in itself).
In modern times, the media have made much of the day and some wonderful pranks have been played on the gullible public, especially by the BBC.
Having seen it, I can never forget April 1, 1957, when a film was shown of Italians harvesting spaghetti from trees, the farmers having at last eradicated the infamous spaghetti weevil. A number of people called in wanting to know how they could obtain spaghetti trees, and the hoax remains a classic to this day.
In 1998, Burger King put out an advert offering special left-handed burger Whoppers, so designed to let the sauces drip out of the right side of the bun. Not only did customers order the new burger, but others requested the old 'right-handed' one.
And in 1976, the normally serious Sir Patrick Moore announced that an unusual alignment of Pluto and Jupiter would actually create a momentary upward gravitational pull at exactly 9.47am. He invited the public to join him in jumping up in the air at the right moment and experience a 'strange floating motion'. Not surprisingly, he received dozens of calls from listeners saying it had worked…
