April Fools' Day
愚人节
April Fools' Day is celebrated every year on the first day of April when people play practical jokes and hoaxes on each other. It is not a national holiday, but it is well known in Canada, Europe, Australia, Brazil and the United States.
人们在每年的4月1日庆祝愚人节，这一天人们彼此开玩笑、互相捉弄。虽然愚人节不是法定假日，但是它在加拿大、欧洲、澳大利亚、巴西和美国都众所周知。
There is a saying that, in the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on 25 March in most European towns. In some areas of France, New Year's was a week-long holiday ending on April. Some writers suggest that April Fools originated because those who celebrated on the 1 January made fun of those who celebrated on other dates. The butts of these pranks became known as a “poisson d'avril” or “April fish” because a young naïve fish is easily caught.
据说，中世纪的时候，欧洲大部分地方的新年是3月25日。在法国的一些区域，新年在4月份结束，有一周的假日。一些作家认为愚人节来源于那些在1月1日庆祝新年的人拿那些在其他日期庆祝新年的人开玩笑。这些被愚弄的人被叫作“四月之鱼”，因为年幼无知的小鱼容易被捉弄。
Jokes have also been performed by large corporations. The spaghetti-tree hoax was a three-minute hoax report broadcast on April Fools' Day 1957 by the BBC, showing a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from the family “spaghetti tree”. At the time spaghetti was relatively little-known in the UK, so that many Britons were unaware that spaghetti is made from wheat flour and water. A number of viewers afterwards contacted the BBC for advice on growing their own spaghetti trees.
一些比较大的公司也会开这些玩笑。“意大利面树”是英国广播公司在1957年愚人节播报的一则长达3分钟的愚弄人的新闻，展现了瑞士南部一家人从自家种植的“意大利面树”上收获意大利面的场景。那时，意大利面在英国相对来说较少为人所知，因此许多英国人不知道意大利面是由面粉和水做成的。许多观众事后联系英国广播公司寻求种植“意大利面树”的建议。
