It all started when the court jester boastfully declared to Emperor Constantine that jesters and buffoons could rule the state better than he could. Constantine decided to give him a chance to prove his words by action - he issued a decree that one day a year Rome would be ruled by one of the jesters. In the first year, Constantine appointed a buffoon named Kugel as ruler, and he immediately ordered: on April 1, all subjects of the empire are forbidden to speak seriously - only fooling around is allowed. Thus the April Fools' tradition was born.
The sensation spread throughout the country. However, a few weeks later it was announced that the entire investigation was nothing but a joke. Of course, an April Fools' joke. Professor Boskin confessed that he had made up the whole story from beginning to end. Boston University issued an official apology for its employee, and many of the newspapers that had fallen for the trick published retractions.
April 1 in different languages of the world
The 'Official April Fools' website, telling the history of the holiday, writes that this day became worldwide only recently. Until the beginning of the 20th century, April 1 had its own national flavor in each country. For example, in France, the 'April fish' most likely owes its appearance to the decree of Charles IX, who in 1564 moved the celebration of the New Year from April 1 to January 1, and the following year, as a sign of protest, many subjects still celebrated the New Year on April 1. As if in jest.
In Finland, the Day of Jokes and Pranks is a recent custom, and of urban origin. But having spread among the peasants, it absorbed much of the character of the original jokes of 'hot Finnish guys.' This is linked to the old village custom during big jobs - threshing grain or slaughtering livestock - of giving children humorous errands. They were sent to a neighbor's yard for some non-existent but supposedly essential tool: glass scissors, chaff plow, or an angle gauge for the manure pile. The neighbors, in turn, 'remembered' that they had already given that tool to someone else, and the child went to the next yard...
In Germany and Austria, April 1 was considered an unlucky day. A person born on this day was supposedly unlucky in life. According to legend, the traitor Judas was born on this day, and it was on April 1 that Satan was cast down from heaven. In villages, people did not work, did not start new tasks, and did not let livestock out of their stalls. Adults and children deceived each other, sending them to carry out impossible errands (for example, to buy mosquito fat from an apothecary or merchant).
In England, All Fools' Day is an official, serious holiday: from midnight to 12 noon on April 1, everyone could play pranks on their friends and acquaintances. Those who fell for the trick were greeted with cheerful laughter and shouts of 'April Fool!' One of the biggest April Fools' hoaxes, long remembered by newspapers and magazines, occurred in London in 1860, when several hundred English gentlemen and their prim English ladies received invitations to attend 'the annual solemn ceremony of washing the white lions, to be held at the Tower of London at 11 a.m., April 1.'
In Scotland, April Fools' Day is celebrated for two days, with the second day of celebration called Tailie Day and all its jokes and pranks exclusively 'below the belt.' People are locked in toilets, fake excrement is thrown at them, and the public is shocked by eating melted chocolate from baby diapers. But the most popular is placing 'whoopee cushions' on chairs. The sound they make is, in fact, considered the 'motto' of Tailie Day.
In the USA, April 1 is called 'a holiday of the heart, not of the state.' Americans are also the authors of the theory that when a person laughs, they do not age. True, American April Fools' jokes cannot be called particularly witty. The classics of the genre are a fat wallet thrown on the road, tied to a string, or a piece of paper with the inscription 'Kick me!' secretly attached to someone's back. And housewives serve chocolate cakes with cotton or chalk inside, and put sugar in salt shakers.
In Russia, in addition to classic jokes, it is customary to come up with new ones every year. According to a survey by the Yuri Levada Analytical Center, 82% of Russians are prone to self-irony, 11% of respondents do not have this ability. Also, according to the Levada Center, 65% of Russians confirmed that they plan to prank loved ones, acquaintances, and colleagues on April 1, 11% will not do this, and 7% are still thinking. According to the survey results, pranks should be expected mainly from men, students, schoolchildren, housewives, and Russians under 40.
The most-most jokes
'You have a white back' - no April 1 is complete without these words. After all, once a year you can walk around with a white back, but... what inventions human thought has come to! For those wishing to prank friends, relatives, and colleagues, there are special guides detailing all aspects of the act. Some jokers prepare surprises in advance, even well ahead of time, while others prefer spectacular improvisations...
The Museum of Hoaxes publishes its selection of the most interesting pranks in history. In 1980, the BBC reported that London's Big Ben would be modernized, its dial supposedly soon to be replaced with an electronic one. The BBC's Japanese service added that the clock hands would be sold to the first four lucky callers to the studio. The reaction was immediate: a Japanese fisherman somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic promptly declared via radio his willingness to participate in the event.
In 1985, the April issue of Discover magazine announced that the highly respected wildlife biologist April Pazzo had discovered a new species in Antarctica: hot-headed shell-less ice worms. These amazing creatures had bony plates on their heads that, thanks to numerous blood vessels, could heat up to high temperatures, allowing the worms to burrow through thick ice at high speed. They used this feature to hunt penguins by melting the ice beneath them and attacking the prey after it fell into the opening. After extensive research, Dr. Pazzo proposed a theory that these hot-headed worms might have been involved in the mysterious disappearance of Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. 'For the ice worms, we are probably no different from penguins,' the magazine quoted him as saying. This article received more letters of feedback than any other publication in the magazine's history.
In 1981, the Daily Mail published an article about an unfortunate Japanese long-distance runner, Kimito Nakajima, who took part in the London Marathon but, due to a translator's mistake, thought the race was 26 days long, not 26 miles. The newspaper reported that Nakajima was still running on the roads of England, determined to see it through to the finish. Some people claimed to have seen him, but they couldn't stop him. The culprit was named as a certain Timothy Bryant, an 'import director,' who said in an interview with the newspaper: 'I translated the rules and sent them to him. But I've only been studying Japanese for two years, and I must have made a mistake. Apparently, he thought the marathon was something like the very long runs they have in Japan.'
Sometimes even well-known news agencies forget about April Fools' Day and report absurd news with complete seriousness. For example, in 1999, the Phoenix New Times wrote about the creation of a new charity organization to help the homeless. Its main feature was the 'method of help' — it intended to provide the homeless not with food and shelter, but with firearms and ammunition. Even the sonorous name: the Coalition to Arm the Homeless did not confuse the news outlets — the message was immediately repeated in all seriousness by local US radio stations, the program '60 Minutes,' and even the Associated Press.
Chinese media once played a prank on one of the most pressing laws for society. In 1993, the China Youth Daily wrote that the government had decided to exempt PhD holders from the country's existing policy: 'One family, one child.' Despite the fact that directly below the article the newspaper placed a disclaimer explaining that it was an April Fools' joke, the message was repeated in all seriousness by the Hong Kong newspaper New Evening News and the international news agency Agence France-Presse. Incidentally, after this incident, Chinese authorities branded April 1 as a dangerous Western tradition, and Chinese media described the extremely harmful influence of the Day of Lies.
There have also been 'prophetic' jokes — in 1962, Sweden had only one television channel, and it was black-and-white. In one news broadcast, a technical specialist from the channel appeared and announced that thanks to a new technology, all viewers could quickly and easily make their televisions color. All they needed to do was stretch a nylon stocking over the TV screen. Strangely enough, hundreds of viewers did just that, but (surprisingly!) it didn't work. Exactly eight years later, the April Fools' joke came true — on April 1, 1970, color television appeared in Sweden.
Based on materials from RIA Novosti