April Fool's Day
April Fool's Day (sometimes called All Fool's Day) is an annual custom on April 1 consisting of practical jokes and hoaxes. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April fools" at the recipient. It only applies to mid-day. The custom of setting aside a day for playing harmless pranks on your neighbours has been relatively common in the world.
The Netherlands is probably the origin of April Fool's Day. The Dutch were victorious at Brielle in 1572 where the Spanish Duke Alvarez de Toledo was defeated. Op 1 april verloor alva zijn bril is a Dutch proverb, which when translated means: " On the first of April, Alva lost his glasses.
I am unsure how this became an international celebration of April Fool's Day.
Over the years there has been some quite elaborate pranks especially by the media. I remember the BBC broadcasting a film purporting to show Swiss farmers picking freshly-grown spaghetti, in what they called the Swiss Spaghetti Harvest. The BBC was flooded with requests to purchase a spaghetti plant forcing them to declare the film a hoax on the news the following day.
Due to recent events I am not aware of any current pranks on this day April 1st 2020.
0 comments:
Post a Comment