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愚人節起源大揭秘
April Fools’ Day: The history of the holiday

[ 2012-03-31 17:43]

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Consider yourself warned. Sunday is April Fools' Day, a day when you are encouraged to pull pranks on loved ones, co-workers, casual acquaintances, and even that one guy at the bus stop.

Consider yourself warned. Sunday is April Fools' Day, a day when you are encouraged to pull pranks on loved ones, co-workers, casual acquaintances, and even that one guy at the bus stop. It's an odd tradition, but how did it get started? What's the history of April Fools' Day, anyway?

Nobody is completely sure about the origin of this, the silliest of holidays. However the urban legend experts at Snopes.com say that most experts give credit to Pope Gregory XIII, who, in the 1500s, gave the world the Gregorian calendar.

In 1562, the Gregorian calendar moved the first day of the year from April 1 to January 1. Word did eventually get around, but some people were a bit slow to hear the news. These folks continued celebrating the new year on April 1, unaware that they were now three months behind the times. These "April fools" were tricked by those in the know. The tradition eventually made its way to the USA.

And it's still going strong. Over the past week, Web searches on "april fools day jokes" and "april fools day pranks" have more than doubled, and related lookups for "easy april fools day pranks" and "april fools day jokes for work" also spiked. Bottom line: Keep your guard up, especially if somebody offers you a word search puzzle. Lookups for "impossible april fools day word searches" are up 200%.

But really, there is no way to be certain you'll escape trickery. Because on April 1, even corporations are out to trick you. In 1998, Burger King tricked its customers by releasing "the left-handed Whopper." In 1957, the BBC reported Swiss farmers were harvesting spaghetti from trees. And in 1996, Taco Bell took out ads in major newspapers announcing that the company had purchased the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell. Shudder.

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(Agencies)

別說我沒有警告你，星期天就是愚人節了。在這天你被鼓勵去和你的愛人、同事、熟人甚至公車站遇見的人開玩笑。這真是一個古怪的傳統，但它是如何開始的呢？愚人節的由來到底是怎么一回事呢？

沒人可以完全肯定這個最愚蠢的節日的起源。不過，Snopes.com的都市傳說專家稱，大多數專家將其歸功于在16世紀頒行格列高利歷（公歷）的教皇格列高利十三世。

1562年，格列高利歷將一年的第一天從4月1日移到1月1日。這一消息后來傳開了，不過有些人比較后知后覺。這些人依然在4月1日慶祝新年，沒有意識到他們已經落后了三個月時間。這些“四月愚人”被那些知情者耍了一把。這一傳統最后傳到了美國。

而現在愚人節依然很流行。在過去一周里，對“愚人節笑話”和“愚人節惡作劇”的網絡搜索量增加了一倍多，對“簡易的愚人節惡作劇”和“職場愚人節笑話”的相關搜索量也大大增加了。底線是：保持警惕，特別是當有人讓你做單詞搜索迷宮題時。對“讓人受不了的愚人節單詞搜索”詞條的搜索量增加了200%。

實際上，沒有什么方法可以保證你不被捉弄。因為在4月1日，甚至連公司也會開你玩笑。1998年，漢堡王宣布推出“左撇子巨無霸漢堡”，結果是和顧客開的玩笑。1957年，英國廣播公司報道說，瑞士農民從樹上收割意大利面。1996年，提供墨西哥美食的餐飲公司“塔可鐘”在各大報紙上發布廣告，宣布公司已經買下了自由鐘，并把它的名字改成了“塔可自由鐘”。天哪。

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（中國日報網英語點津陳丹妮編輯：Julie）

Vocabulary:

prank: 胡鬧；惡作劇

casual acquaintance: 偶然結識的人，泛泛之交

Gregorian calendar: 格列高利歷，公歷（教皇格列高利十三世于1582年頒行）

in the know: 知情的，消息靈通的

left-handed Whopper: 全球快餐業巨頭“漢堡王”在1998年的愚人節發布新聞稿，宣稱當天為每年約1100萬名光顧旗下餐廳的英國左撇子消費者專門設計了“左撇子巨無霸漢堡”。廣告登出后有數千名左撇子顧客打電話到“漢堡王”餐廳要訂購這種漢堡。其實，這種漢堡的配料跟平常沒有什么區別，只是食物都旋轉180度擺放。

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