April Fool’s Day – what does it mean and where does it come from?
April Fool’s Day, or April 1 in Latin, probably comes from ancient times. Historians have several clues. One of them refers to a story from ancient Greece and Persephone, who was kidnapped to Hades in the first days of April. Her mother Demeter (Latin: Ceres) searched for her daughter underground, guided by her voice, but the echo misled her.
According to other legends, the origin of April Fool’s Day is the Roman festival of Veneralia, often combined with the feast of Fortuna Virilis and Cerialia (a festival in honor of Ceres), celebrated on April 1. On this day, you could joke and make jokes as much as you wanted. Men dressed up as women and danced in the streets. Comic performances were also popular.
April Fools’ Day, the day of jokes in the world
Probably April Fool’s Day as a day of pranks was first celebrated on April 1 in France. It was related to the event in 1564, when King Charles IX introduced a calendar reform – he changed the first day of the new year from April 1 to January 1.
April Fools’ Day came to Poland from Western Europe in the 16th century.
- In English-speaking countries it is called “April Fools’ Day” or “All Fools’ Day”.
- In Germany it’s simply “April 1”.
- In France, April Fool’s Day is known as “April Fish Day”.
- In Scotland it is known as “The Fool’s Hunt”.
- In Lithuania it is “Liar’s Day”.
- In Portugal, “Day of Lie”.
- In Russia – “Day of laughter”.
How is April Fool’s Day celebrated?
This is the day when you can be misled – in the media or by friends and acquaintances. Some people, however, take the matter very seriously. The Institute of National Remembrance reminds on its website the anti-Turkish alliance with Leopold I of Habsburg, signed on April 1, 1683, which – to strongly emphasize its seriousness and authenticity – was dated to March 31.
The Institute of National Remembrance also provides examples of jokes from the 1920s in Poland. The newspapers then reported, among others: about installing beer barrels in passenger railway cars to make the journey more pleasant for passengers. More and more often, April Fools’ Day media jokes featured wonders of nature, fantastic plans for urban investments, new buildings and scientific inventions.
On April 1, 1938, “Gazeta Polska” wrote about the secretly built Warsaw metro line and the construction of glass roofs over the city streets. Interestingly, some of the jokes printed and broadcast on the radio at that time turned out to be true later. An example is a joke from April 1, 1937, when Polish Radio broadcast a report on the invention of radio cameras intended for installation in cars.
The most famous April Fool’s jokes in the world’s media
- Changing gravity, i.e. great jumping
On April 1, 1976, BBC radio in Great Britain reported the conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto, which was supposed to affect Earth’s gravity. A man named Patrick Moore said on air that at 9:47, when Pluto hides behind Jupiter, the planets will create a strong gravitational force, which in turn will reduce the gravity of the Earth. If the listeners jumped at this time, they would begin to levitate. The truth quickly came to light, but many people were fooled and practiced jumping.
- San Serriffe Archipelago, or a new world
On April 1, 1977, “The Guardian” published an extensive text about the paradise archipelago of San Serriffe in the Indian Ocean. Many people were convinced that such a place really existed and would compete with the Maldives or Bora Bora, but this was obviously a bluff.
On April 1, 1957, BBC television reported a bountiful spaghetti harvest. Lush pasta appeared on bushes in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland, and viewers saw farmers harvesting the crops. A new variety of “Pasta Bushes” also grew, the threads of which were of equal length, and after drying in the sun, they could be immediately prepared into a paste. Preferably with tomato sauce. This April Fool’s joke can be seen in the archived video below:
- Edison invented a wonderful machine
On April 1, 1878, the American newspaper “New York Daily Graphic” wrote that Thomas Edison, the famous inventor of, among others, the phonograph, created a machine that turned soil into grain and water into wine. A real miracle that turned out to be… just a joke.
- Time change and new clocks
On April 1, 1975, the time changed in Australia – announced the local ABC television. The entire country was to switch to the metric system, in which an hour has one hundred minutes and a minute has one hundred seconds. Australians even got to see new clocks. The TV station was flooded with questions about whether the existing clocks could be changed to the new time.
- Women’s stockings and color television
On April 1, 1962, the public Swedish television channel Sveriges Television, which was then broadcast in black and white, announced how to receive television in color. As the expert advised, viewers were to put a piece of nylon on the screen, preferably stockings, and thus watch the image in color. However, there was a condition – they had to nod their heads back and forth during this time. Many were fooled.
On April 1, 2005, the British tabloid “The Sun” wrote that the European Union had decided to ban the celebration of April Fool’s Day. The reason was serious? Risk of loss of mental and physical health.
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source: “April Fool’s Day fun and serious, but always historical”wroclaw.ipn.gov.pl, “20 famous jokes on April Fool’s Day”, rp.pl