foolishnessRyan McVay

Holidays are celebrated for all sorts of reasons. Some honor heroes， others commemorate religious events， but April 1 stands out as the only holiday that celebrates foolishness. April Fools Day， or All Fools Day， is an odd celebration with a strange history.

Theres some uncertainty about when and where this tradition began， but the most accepted explanation traces April Fools Day back to 16th century in France. Up until 1564， the accepted calendar was the Julian calendar， which observed the beginning of the New Year around April. According to “The Oxford Companion to the Year，” King Charles IX then announced that France would begin using the Gregorian calendar， which moved New Years Day to January 1.

Not everyone accepted this moving of dates at the same time. Some believed that the dates should not be moved， and it was these people who became the butt of some April jokes and were laughed at as fools. People sent gifts and invited them to fake parties. Citizens in the rural parts of France were also victims of these jokes. In those days， news traveled slowly and they might not have known about the moving of dates for months or years. These people also suffered being made fun of for celebrating the new year on the wrong day.

Today in France， people who are fooled on April 1 are called Poisson dAvril， which literally means the “April Fish”. One common joke is to hook a cardboard fish to the back of a person. What a fish has to do with April Fools Day is not clear. Some believe that the fish is tied to Jesus Christ， who was often represented as a fish in early Christian times. Others say the fish is related to the zodiac sign of Pisces， which is represented by a fish， and falls near April. Its interesting to point out that Napoleon earned the Poisson dAvril nickname when he married Marie Louise of Austria on April 1， 1810.

Vocabulary

commemorate v. 紀(jì)念

butt n. 笑柄

victim n. 犧牲品

zodiac n. 星座

（What do you do on April Fools Day？）