April Fools' Day (sometimes called All Fools' Day) is celebrated every year on April 1 by playing practical jokes and spreading hoaxes. The jokes and their victims are called April fools. People playing April Fool jokes expose their
prank by shouting April
Fool. Some newspapers, magazines, and other published
media report fake stories, which are usually explained the next day or below
the news section in small letters. Although popular since the 19th century, the
day is not a public holiday in any country.
United Kingdom
In the UK, an April Fool joke is revealed by shouting "April
fool!" at the recipient, who becomes the "April fool". A study
in the 1950s, by folklorists Iona and Peter Opie, found that in the UK, and in countries whose traditions derived from the
UK, the joking ceased at midday. A person playing a joke after midday is the
"April fool" themselves.
In Scotland, April Fools' Day was traditionally called 'Huntigowk Day', although
this name has fallen into disuse. The name is a corruption of 'Hunt the Gowk',
"gowk" being Scots for a
cuckoo or a foolish person; alternative terms in Gaelic would be Là
na Gocaireachd 'gowking day' or Là Ruith na Cuthaige 'the
day of running the cuckoo'. The traditional prank is to ask someone to deliver
a sealed message that supposedly requests help of some sort. In fact, the
message reads "Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile."
The recipient, upon reading it, will explain he can only help if he first contacts
another person, and sends the victim to this next person with an identical
message, with the same result.
In England a "fool" is known by different names around the
country, including a "noodle", "gob", "gobby" or
"noddy".
Ireland
In Ireland it was traditional to entrust the victim with an "important
letter" to be given to a named person. That person would then ask the
victim to take it to someone else, and so on. The letter when finally opened
contained the words "send the fool further".
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