“The first of April, some do say, April The 1st is set apart for All Fools’ Day. But why the people call it so, Nor I, nor they themselves do know. But on this day are people sent on purpose for pure merriment.”
Poor Robin’s Almanac (1790)
Happy April Fool’s day! Let’s celebrate the most light-hearted holiday of the year with learning this Chinese sentence.
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In Mandarin Chinese, how to say ” Happy April Fool’s day. Let’s play pranks on him and put a frog in his desk as a practical joke.” 愚人节快乐。我们来作弄他，放只青蛙在他的书桌里做为恶作剧。yú rén jié kuàilè . wǒmen lái zuònòng tā , fàng zhī qīngwā zài tā de shūzhuō lǐ zuò wèi èzuòjù . yú rén jié (愚 yú, adjective – foolish; 人 rén, noun – people or person; 节 jié, holiday; together these three words mean (April) Fool’s Day) kuàilè (快乐 static verb, happy). wǒmen lái (我们pronoun, we; 来lái, originally a verb means come, here 我们来 wǒmen lái means let’s) zuònòng ( 作弄 verb phrase means tease, play a trick or play pranks) tā (他 pronoun, him) , fàng (放 verb, put) zhī (只 here mean 一 只 yì zhī, 一 yì means one, 只 zhī measure word for frog) qīngwā ( 青蛙 noun, frog) zài (在 preposition, at) tā de (他的 possessive pronoun, his) shūzhuō (书桌 noun, desk) lǐ (里 preposition, within or inside) zuò wèi (做为 verb phrase, work as or act as) èzuòjù (恶作剧 noun, practical joke) .
April Fools’ Day happens on the first day of April. For the origin and history of April Fool’s Day, there are a few sayings.
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The first theory (理 论 [lĭlùn] ). It is said that in some ancient culture (文 化 [wénhuà] ), including those of the Romans (古 罗 马 人 [gŭ Luómărén] ) and Hindus (印 度 教 信 徒 [Yìndùjiào xìntú] ), celebrated New Year’s Day on or around April 1. However, in 1582, Pope (教 皇 [jiàohuáng] ) Gregory XIII ordered to replace the old Julian Calendar ( 历 法 [lìfă]) with the Gregorian Calendar. The new calendar celebrated New Year’s Day on Jan. 1. France, also adopted the new calendar and switched New Year’s day to Jan. 1. At that time, many people refused to accept the new date and some did not learn about the New Year’s day got switched, and so, they continued to celebrate New Year’s Day on April 1. Thus, people began teasing (逗 弄 [dòunong] ) those old fashion people and tried to trick (耍 花 招 [shuă huāzhāo] ) them or make fun of them. Eventually, the practice spread all over Europe.
Another theory about the origin of April Fools’ Day is: According to Joseph Boskin, a professor of history at Boston University. He explained that April Fool’s day started during the reign of Constantine (ancient Roman Emperor). Professor Boskin said, once there was a group of court jesters (小 丑 [Xiǎochǒu]) and fools [白 痴 [báichī] or 傻瓜 [Shǎguā] ), and they told the Roman emperor that “The Fools and Jesters of the court could Rule the Kingdom better than the Emperor.” The king, Constantine, felt this idea was fun, so he let a jester named Kugel to be king for one day. Kugel was said to have ruled on April 1st. On that day Kugel made an immediate announcement that only the absurd (荒 谬 的 [huāngmiù de] ) things were allowed to do on this day. Thus, for this reason, April Fool’s day is accustomed to be celebrated with playing tricks and pranks (恶 作 剧 [èzuòjù] ) on people.
Nowadays, April Fools’ Day is widely celebrated throughout the world. What you can do on this day? You can send someone you know on a fool’s errand (差 事 [chāshì] ). A fool’s errand is a task (任 务 [rènwù] ) that cannot be accomplished (完 成 [wánchéng]) because of fate or because it is a joke (笑 话 [xiàohua] ). It can be: trying to find something that does not exist (like a never dying flower?), or trying to accomplish an impossible task (like to drift to the moon with a potion). You can also play pranks or and try to get people to believe ridiculous (荒 谬 的 [huāngmiù de] ) things.
In England, tricks can be played only in the morning. If a trick is played on you, you are a “noodle”. In Scotland, they celebrate April Fools Day for 48 hours, and if you got played, then you became “April Gowk”, which is another name for a cuckoo (杜 鹃 [dùjiān] ) bird. The second day is called Taily Day. In that day people like do pranks involving the buttocks (臀 部 [túnbù] ). In France, April Fool’s is called “April Fish” (Poisson d’Avril). The French fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends’ backs (背 部 [bèibù] ) and when someone discovers this trick, they yell “Poisson d’Avril!”
For you, a Chinese language learner, you can trick your classmates by saying: Starting from next month, the Chinese government is going to abolish all the Chinese characters, so there are going to have no Chinese characters to write or flashcards to practice. How cool, isn’t it? Or you can send your friend on a fool’s errand to catch a descendant of phoenix (凤 凰 [fènghuáng]), and give him or her a map to go to Arizona to capture that mythical (神 话 中 的 [shénhuà zhōng de] ) Chinese lucky bird’s off-spring. Oh, I forgot to tell you, from tomorrow on, due to lacking of funding, my account at host sever will be closed, so sorry to say that you are not going to read my posts anymore. I really enjoy writing posts for you and helping you with Chinese learning, but the economy is bad, very bad, and my salary is very limited too. I hope you can understand. Thank you for all your support and best wishes.
Happy April Fool’s Day everyone and see you tomorrow.
2 Responses to History, origin, fun facts of April Fool’s Day. Mandarin Chinese, how to say ” Happy April Fool’s day. Let’s play pranks on him and put a frog in his desk as a practical joke.” phrases ridiculous, absurd, jester, fool, trick, tease.