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I’m not going to attempt to make any wise or cutting remarks about this morning’s news stories as it’s All Fools Day. Any of the unlikely or preposterous stories I may pick out from the morning’s papers, and heaven knows that there are so many of them, might be an April Fools joke.
There are many theories about the origins of a day on which people traditionally play practical jokes on each other though the custom appears to have been pretty well entrenched by the Middle Ages and refined ever since. None of the theories as to its origins seem to satisfactorily explain why much of the world needs a special day to perpetrate harmless jokes on people - Saturnalia, relief against the end of winter or a day to mark the old New Year’s Day after the calendar was reformed are just a few of them.
Possibly the most famous practical joke played on this day in Britain was the spoof news item run by the BBC Television in 1957 showing the Italian spaghetti harvest, a spoof I remember very well and which is repeated from time to time for the gullible. Back in 1957, the only spaghetti most people saw came out of tins and was covered with tomato sauce, so the joke may not have been apparent to many folk at that time. Nonetheless, it is a good example of a harmless practical joke played on the innocent.
What more can I say? Happy All Fools Day - and remember the jokes have to be perpetrated before noon!
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I’m not going to attempt to make any wise or cutting remarks about this morning’s news stories as it’s All Fools Day. Any of the unlikely or preposterous stories I may pick out from the morning’s papers, and heaven knows that there are so many of them, might be an April Fools joke.
There are many theories about the origins of a day on which people traditionally play practical jokes on each other though the custom appears to have been pretty well entrenched by the Middle Ages and refined ever since. None of the theories as to its origins seem to satisfactorily explain why much of the world needs a special day to perpetrate harmless jokes on people - Saturnalia, relief against the end of winter or a day to mark the old New Year’s Day after the calendar was reformed are just a few of them.
Possibly the most famous practical joke played on this day in Britain was the spoof news item run by the BBC Television in 1957 showing the Italian spaghetti harvest, a spoof I remember very well and which is repeated from time to time for the gullible. Back in 1957, the only spaghetti most people saw came out of tins and was covered with tomato sauce, so the joke may not have been apparent to many folk at that time. Nonetheless, it is a good example of a harmless practical joke played on the innocent.
What more can I say? Happy All Fools Day - and remember the jokes have to be perpetrated before noon!
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