愚人节的那些事

朗读：尚尚Sheckilia 背景音乐：shape of my heart / she keeps me warm 愚人节的由来 对于它的起源众说纷纭，但人们在这一天共同的活动是捉弄别人，如果上当了就会被称为“四月愚人(April Fool)”。 　　About April Fools Day 　　What is April Fools Day and how did it begin? Well, that is a very good question. The origin of this holiday is rather uncertain. However, the common belief holds that during the reformation of the calendar the date for the New Year was moved from April 1st to January 1st. During that time in history there was no television and no radio so word spread slowly. There were also those who chose to simply ignore the change and those who merely forgot. These people were considered "fools" and invitations to non-existent parties and other practical jokes were played on them. "All Fools' Day" is practiced in many parts of the world with practical jokes and sending people on a fool's errand. 　　Another thought is that the origin began with the celebrations of the Spring Equinox. While some believe it has to do the a Roman festival known as Hilaria, the end of the Celtic new year. 　　In Scotland, April Fools Day lasts 48 hours, day two is know as Taily Day and pranks involving the posterior are played. The victim of the practical joke is referred to as "hunting the gowk"; the gowk is an extinct cuckoo bird. 　　In France, he is the "poisson d'Avril" or "fish of April." The fish in April are newly hatched and easily caught. French children enjoy taping a picture of a fish on their friends back and yelling out "Poisson dAvril!" when it is found. 　　Da de los Santos Inocentes is held in Spain on December 28th. This is The Feast of the Holy Innocents. It's celebrated similarly to April Fools' Day with practical jokes. 　　In the United States, pranks are played on just about everybody. Pranks range from the standard "Your shoe is untied", to some very creative and elaborate ideas. The only "rule" is that no one should be harmed. The best jokes are when everybody including the victim laughs. 　 Well-known hoaxes 　Alabama Changes the Value of Pi： The April 1998 newsletter of New Mexicans for Science and Reason contained an article claiming that the Alabama Legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi to the “Biblical value” of 3.0. This claim originally appeared as a news story in the 1961 sci-fi classic “Stranger in a Strange Land” by Robert A. 　　Spaghetti trees： The BBC television programme Panorama ran a famous hoax in 1957， showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. They had claimed that the despised pest the spaghetti wevil had been eradicated. A large number of people contacted the BBC wanting to know how to cultivate their own spaghetti trees. 　　South Park： April 1st was advertised as being the premiere of the show's second season—and also the resolution of a cliffhanger where Eric Cartman was about to discover the identity of his father. Fans spent weeks speculating on the father's identity， but when they tuned in to the episode， they were instead treated to a half-hour of Terrance and Phillip fart jokes. The true resolution to the cliffhanger aired several weeks later. The show's creators， Trey Parker and Matt Stone claim during the DVD introduction to this episode that they received death threats over pulling the prank， although there were not any police reports to prove this.