April Fool's Day 愚人节

April Fool's Day is on April the first, a day when people play tricks on others, especially by telling them something that is not true. Its exact origin is uncertain, but the possible origin may be from France. In France, the celebration of the new year used to begin on March 25th and finish on April 1st. In 1582, a new calendar was introduced (the Gregorian Calendar), and New Year's Day was changed to January 1st. For many years, however, many people still celebrated New Year's Day on April 1st instead of on January 1st. They did not know about the new calendar, so they were called "fools" by the people who followed the new modern calendar.

愚人节是4月1日，在这一天人们可以捉弄别人，通常是说一些假话来制造恶作剧。愚人节的具体来源很不确定，但是可能来自于法国。在法国，过去人们在3月25日开始庆祝新年，一直持续到4月1日。1582年法国开始采用了新的日历（格雷果里历），新年的日期也就改到了每年的1月1日。但是后来的很多年，由于有很多人不知道已经改用了新的日历，仍然在4月1日庆祝新年。这些人因此常常被叫做“傻瓜”。

（本文选自人民教育出版社《中学英语文化背景知识手册》，2008年8月第1版）