April Fools’ Day
By the 1700s, April Fools’ Day, was well entrenched in Britain, and now April 1, a day of universal hilarity, is officially the most amusing day of the year worldwide. But the tradition goes back to ancient times and it’s said that it may have had to do with ripening grain harvests and changes in the seasons. We learn from history that in Iran pranks have been played on April 1 since 536 BC. The day is the 13th day of the Persian New Year, and is called Sizdah Bedar. Families and friends mark the new season by spending the afternoon outside with food, games and jokes. India’s Holi festival is celebrated on March 31. On this day people play jokes, throw coloured dust and wear face and body paint to officially welcome spring. Meanwhile, in Portugal people have been throwing flour over each other for centuries. Danes, Finns, Icelanders, Norwegians and Swedes also celebrate April Fools’ Day, heralding warmer weather after the long winter. And similarly in other parts of Europe.
The most famous April Fools’ Day pranks that have been played range from the sublime to the ridiculous. The best known public prank is the April 1, 1957 news show broadcast by the BBC. It was a three-minute segment about a bumper spaghetti harvest in southern Switzerland. This was apparently because of an unusually mild winter and the “virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil,” with video footage of a Swiss family pulling pasta off spaghetti trees and placing it into baskets. The show said: “For those who love this dish, there’s nothing like real, home-grown spaghetti”. Hundreds of people phoned the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this query the BBC simply said: “Place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best.”
Isloo’s wags are saying that Their Honourable Lordships, the Supreme adjudicators, are being advised to pronounce The Mother of All Judgments on Saturday April 1!