origin, history and the most famous pranks – Varesenoi.it

Be careful not to take the bait: today is April 1st. This year too, we will most likely read absurd news which then, however plausible, turns out to be false and in short “an April Fool’s joke“, also called april fool’s day, April poisson And April fishing.

April 1st is traditionally the day of pranks in many parts of the world. But where does this habit come from? Why do we celebrate April Fools’ Day? Let’s see the origin of this day, the meaning and some famous jokes.

According to many, the origins of the April Fool’s Day tradition date back to the history of the Catholic Church. One of the most remote theories, in fact, concerns the blessed Bertrand of San Genesio, patriarch of Aquileia from 1334 to 1350, who miraculously freed a pope who had been choked in the throat by a fish bone. The pontiff, grateful to Bertrando, would thus have decreed a ban on eating fish on April 1st.

But there is another theory that places the birth of the tradition in the 16th century, following the adoption of the Gregorian calendar. The reform adopted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, in fact, moved the New Year, which in Europe was celebrated by exchanging gift packages between 25 March (the old date of the spring equinox) and 1 April, to 1 January.

It is said that after the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, many French people, opposed to this change or simply careless, continued to exchange gifts between March and April, celebrating New Year like in the old days. To make fun of them, pranksters started giving them absurd or empty gifts during non-existent parties. In the empty gift they could find a card with poisson d’avril written on it: April Fool’s Day, in French.

In Italy, April 1st spread between 1860 and 1880 and the first city to welcome the French custom was Genoa. The tradition took root first among the middle-upper classes, then took hold among the rest of the population.

There are also those who, like some anthropologists, believe that the birth of the tradition of April Fools’ pranks dates back to the beginning of the spring fishing season. In the first week of April, in fact, fishermen often found no fish and returned empty-handed, thus becoming the object of ridicule by their fellow citizens.

For other scholars, however, the origins of April Fool’s Day fall back to the classical age in the myth of Proserpina, who after being kidnapped by Pluto is searched for in vain by her mother, deceived by a nymph, and in the pagan festival of Veneralia, which was held on April 1st.

What do fish have to do with jokes? Simple! Fish bite the hook easily. How the victims of pranks easily “take the bait” of mockery.

April Fools’ is usually called this custom which originally consists of sending naive people around making them look for things or characters that they will never be able to find.

This custom is justified by following the legacy of an old legend. Story which narrated the end of the creation of the world by the Lord on April 1st. Once on that day, once all things were settled, the Lord returned to heaven. The first men who inhabited the earth were lost and didn’t know where to start to organize themselves. They then started looking for food and shelter for the night. Imagine the confusion that reigned. As often happens, everything was made worse by the incompetent people who hindered the work of others, which is why they were sent to the most disparate points to look for non-existent or impossible objects and things. From this would have arisen the idea of ​​sending gullible people out into the streets, making them look for things or characters that couldn’t be found.

Sometimes, however, it is really difficult not to fall for it: also because imagination has no limits and neither do jokes. From schools to television to websites, the joke has no limits. Any examples? In 1938 the writer Orson Welles planned an April Fool’s joke that many remember: on the telephone program “The War of Two Worlds” he announced the invasion of aliens. The news was taken at face value and the police switchboard was bombarded with calls. The next day the writer admitted the hoax, but some American cities suffered extensive damage, especially supermarkets which were literally attacked.

The BBC report from 1957 was famous, showing a spaghetti plantation in Switzerland: many called the English broadcaster to ask for instructions on how to grow the plant. Also in 2008, the BBC showed a video with flying penguins, “another extraordinary step in evolution”.

Another hoax that went down in history dates back to April 1, 1972 when the death of the Loch Ness monster was announced. At the time, many newspapers spread the news of the discovery of the animal’s body, but in reality it was the carcass of an elephant seal thrown into the lake as a joke. Finally in 2000 The Independent reported a decidedly absurd piece of news: Viagra for rabbits.

The April Fool’s Day tradition is celebrated in many countries around the world, including Finland, Australia, Galicia, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom. Furthermore, it is also celebrated in Menorca, Portugal, the United States and Brazil. In the Scottish Highlands, April Fools’ Day lasts for two days. On the second day, people chase each other through the streets trying to stick a sign saying “Kick me!” on their backs. In Germany, April 1st is the day of the “Aprilscherz”, that is, “April Joke”. In Portugal, however, they are more sophisticated and have developed different traditions. Here we play with flour. You buy lots of packets of flour and empty them on the heads of anyone you meet on the street. Another difference with the rest of the world is that the day chosen is not April 1st, but the Sunday and Monday before Lent. Moving to Mexico and the Iberian Peninsula, the day dedicated to pranks exists, but it is not in April, but on December 28th. Finally India: here too there is a change of date compared to April 1st. The chosen date, in fact, is brought forward by one day, i.e. March 31, when the Holi festival is celebrated. In addition to pranks, dances and street games, colored powders are thrown at each other and we all end up looking like colorful unicorns.

Where you go, what custom you find: perhaps the important thing is not so much having a unique date, but being able to still maintain (even in a difficult period like this) the desire to joke and take life more lightly.