托福考试背景知识：愚人节的由来

今天是一年一度的April Fool’s Day 愚人节，大家知道愚人节是怎么来的吗？下文小编为大家详述下愚人节的由来和传说，以及愚人节相关庆祝活动和礼物！愚人节是西方的节日，备考托福的同学了解一下愚人节相关文化背景是十分有必要的。

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愚人节起源于法国。人们在4月1日便互相愚弄，成为法国流行的风俗。18世纪初，愚人节习俗 传到英国，接着又被英国的早期移民带到了美国。

April Fool’s Day 愚人节

1st April is a day to be careful, or you could easily get tricked by someone. It’s April Fool’s Day, a "for-fun-only" observance, a day when people traditionally like to try to make a fool of someone else and laugh at them.

Origins(愚人节起源)

There are lots of theories surrounding the origins of the day. As we look back in time, many ancient predecessors of April Fool’s Day are found.

A French legendry 法国关于愚人节的传说

The most widespread theory about the origin of April Fool’s Day links the day to the calendar reform in France.

In 1582 France became the first country to switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. This meant that the beginning of the year was moved from the end of March 25th and April 1st, various jokes would be played on him. This story might explain why April 1st became the date of the modern holiday.

Mythological roots 关于愚人节的神话起源

There have been quite a few attempts to provide mythological explanations for the rise of April Fool’s Day.

One story dates back to Roman mythology, particularly the myth of Ceres and Proserpina. In Roman mythology Pluto, the God of the dead, abducted Proserpina called out to her mother Ceres for help. But Ceres, who could only hear the echo of her daughter’s voice, searched in vain for Proserpina. The fruitless search of Ceres for her daughter was commemorated during the Roman festival of Cerealia and believed by some to have been the mythological antecedent of the fool’s errands popular on April 1st.

British folklore 英国民间传说

British folklore links April Fool’s Day to the town of Gotham. According to the legend, it was traditional in the 13th century for any road that the King travelled over to become public property. People in Gotham didn’t want to lose their main road and spread a false story to stop the King. A messenger was sent to Gotham after King John learned the people’s trick. But when the messenger arrived in Gotham he found the town was full of lunatics who were engaged in foolish activities such as drowning fish or attempting to cage birds in roofless fences. The King fell for the hoax and declared the town too foolish to warrant punishment. And ever since then, April Fool’s Day has supposedly commemorated their trickery.

Anthropological explanations 人类学的解释

Anthropological and cultural historians provide their own explanations for the rise of April Fool’s Day. According to them, the celebration traces its roots back to festivals marking the springtime.

Spring is the time of year when the weather becomes fickle, as if Nature is playing tricks on man, and festivals occurring during the spring traditionally mirrored this sense of whimsy and surprise. They often involved temporary inversions of the social order. Normal behavior no longer governed during the brief moment of transition as the old world died and the new cycle of seasons was born. Jokes, trickery, and the turning upside down of status expectations were all allowed.

In addition, the linkage between April Fool’s Day and the springtime is seen in another story that traces the origin of the custom back to the abundance of fish to be found in French streams during early April when the young fish had just hatched. These young fish were easy to fool with a hook and lure. Therefore, the French called them “Poisson d’Avril” or “April Fish”. Soon it became customary to fool people on April 1st, as a way of celebrating the abundance of “foolish” fish.

Celebrated 庆祝活动

In France today, April first is called "Poisson d'Avril." French children fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends' backs. When the "young fool" discovers this trick, the prankster yells "Poisson d'Avril!" (April Fish!)

In Scotland, April Fool's Day is actually celebrated for two days. The second day is devoted to pranks involving the posterior region of the body. It is called Taily Day. The origin of the "kick me" sign can be traced to this observance.

Mexico and many Spanish-speaking countries have Innocent's Day, on December 28, to make "innocent" a person with jokes and hoaxes. The origin for the pranking is derived from the Catholic feast day Day of the Holy Innocents for the infants slaughtered by King Herod at the time of Jesus' birth.

The New York April Fools' Day Parade was created in 1986 to remedy a glaring omission in the long list of New York's annual ethnic and holiday parades. These events fail to recognize the importance of April 1st, the day designated to commemorate the perennial folly of mankind. In an attempt to bridge that gap and bring people back in touch with their inherent foolishness, the parade annually crowns a King of Fools from the parading look-alikes.

Gag gifts 恶作剧的礼物

What kind of pranks do people play on April Fool’s Day?

Starving students

A good prank for most university's is to print up a bunch of fake leaflets advertising a non-existent restaurant that has cheap eats and offers free food with the coupons printed on the leaflets. Most colleges have a student union, so the leaflets can be dropped off there and pinned up on various bulletin boards around campus.

When this is done, you can sit back and watch the marks wandering around looking for their free lunches.

Go Fish, Goldfish

When you are at someone's house and they are having a party or people over, go to their main bathroom and put about a dozen goldfish in their toliet. This prank is hilarious because people won't know what to do. They either go to the bathroom and flush the fish or they let them stay in there until someone scoops them out and they will end up with a dozen goldfish!

Sticky Glue

You'll need a little bit of lightly sticky glue for this one--I suggest simply using a glue stick and smearing it. Put the glue on someone's seat--imagine the trouble they'll have getting up!