All Fools’ Day

Today my director said at the end of meeting that salary will be increased beginning from April 1. To which we smiled and asked him to shift the rise to April 2.

Guess why :))) Have you ever been made fun of? Do you play tricks on your friends and collegues? Everyone likes to joke or pull somebody’s leg from time yo time, but once a year, on April 1, almost everyone willing is engaged into this game, from a student to a well-off businessman. According to the public opinion poll, 70% questioned are going to make fun of their friends on April 1; if you’re in – get reagy to become the object of tricks, provide yourself with a set of fresh jokes and stories and don’t get angry if you are fooled: remember that a minute of laughter is as health-giving as a kilogram of carrot.

History No one can really say why All Fool’s Day is celebrated (or at least mentioned) on this precise day of the year: some say that the holiday comes originally from Ancient Rome, where Day of the Silly was celebrated in the middle of February; others claim the holiday to originate from Ancient India’s Joke Day (March 31). April 1 in particular was a Jest Festival in Ireland only. There’s a version according to which this holiday appeared thanks to the Neapolitan king Monterey, who was served a fish to honour the end of an earthquake. In a year the king demanded the same type of fish, but the cook couldn’t find it, so he cooked another fish, very much resembling the first type. Though Monterey recognized the substitution, he cheered up instead of getting angry. Since then it has become customary to play tricks those around one. Modern Traditions England starts celebrating All Fools’ Day at 12 a.m. on April 14; those who are tricked get the name of April Fool. This day in 1860 several hundred Londoners got printed invitations to “the annual ceremony of white lions washing in the Tower at 11 a.m.”. Crowds of “april fools” were besieging the Tower gates at the appointed time. In Scotland the celebration of this holiday lasts for 48 hours. In France April Fools’ Day is called April Fish. In 1564 king Charles IX published a decree according to which the beginning of the year was transferred from January 1 to April 1. Many of his citizens were against such a shift, so they demonstrated disagreement by sending each other a traditional New Year's gift - a fish. Today kids in France stick paper fish on each other’s and adults passing by’s backs, that is why on April 1 you may see dignified grown-ups with flickering papery fish behind. When the mockery object finds out a joke, the joker shouts: " Poisson d'Avril "! Germans consider April 1 an unhappy day, because according to the legend, Iuda was born on this day.

Anyway, adults and children have fun and send each other to drugstore or magazine with unrealizable assignments (such as buying mosquito’s fat). In the Netherlands everyone tries to play a trick on friends, to create and deliver unusual news; even newspapers participate in it: on this day their pages contain articles on unbelievable experiments and discoveries in science, visits of non-existent persons, fake forecast (which though doesn’t always differ from the real one). Some kind of Fools’ Day (under the name of Huli) is celebrated at the end of March in India. In Latin America this date shifts to December 28 and the holiday is called “Dia de los Inocentes” – Sincerity Day. Russian Fooling One more occasion to celebrate. Remember the wonderful Soviet movie Love And Doves, when one of characters says, “Bastilia Taking Day – has passed by us...” Though it could be the topic of another article: Russia Drinks or something like that. Anyway, April 1 is a great occasion to make fun of someone.

Even mass media join the luring process of fooling people, publishing pseudo-true facts and pictures (actually, this is the way many newspapers around the world work). In 1990 weekly Sobesednik published a pseudoscientific research convincingly proving that there was no Alexander Block (a famous Russian poet); in reaction to that dozens of literary critics from different citites (all with high scientific degrees) joined the heated discussion on the topic and opened polemics with the weekly. In 1991 Komsomolskaya Pravda published the article about baby mammoth found frozen somewhere in Chukotka, that came back to life and was placed in Moscow zoo.

A lot of people believed it and kept coming to the zoo the following week to see the animal; some even travelled all through the country to ascertain the miracle. A day ago I read in livejournal the following “for the Fools’ Day joke” (which I will not be surprized to see tomorrow in some newspaper, for lots of information journalists use is taken from Internet): Moscow transport facilities directors came forward with an interesting proposal – to carry out the first city trolley-bus race at night from March 31 to April 1. Up to this moment three trolley-bus parks confirmed participation in this competition; the race will take place on the 1 Road Ring, which will be closed for other transport and pedestrians from 23:50 p.m. to 3 a.m. The crew of each participant consists of driver, co-driver, navigator and flight engineer; the winner will get next year ten new machines over and above the plan. Funny, heh?

If you work for a large company – you most probably enjoy corporate e-mailing with lots of anecdotes and jokes, some of them even referring to the project you’re developing (which actually has entered daily routine of a “white-collar” employee). With or without Internet, you may play tricks on your friends or act as fool yourself. Enjoy the given possibility to act like a careless child, but keep in mind that your joke is successful if the person you has made fun of laughs with you.