H A V E Y O U E V E R picked a shiny apple from a tree? A juicy pear? What about

some stringy spaghetti? Spaghetti! Everyone knows that spaghetti doesn’t grow on trees,

don’t they? Well, Francine Grinham told me recently how people in England were once

fooled into believing that it did!

One evening in 1957, the respected British television program

Panorama aired a news report about spaghetti farmers in Switzerland. The

black-and-white film clip showed Swiss farmers picking baskets of spaghetti

as it dangled from the branches of trees. It had been a bumper harvest,

the program said, due to a very warm spring and the elimination of the

dreaded spaghetti weevil. After the show the television company received

numerous calls from viewers trying to find out where they could buy a spa-

ghetti tree! The date was April 1. Those viewers were April Fools.

Spaghetti is best when it’s No one really knows when April Fools’ Day started, but a popular
picked fresh from the tree. theory is that the holiday originated in sixteenth-century France. Many
cultures celebrate the return of spring with joyful festivals and general

foolishness. Traditionally, the French celebrated the beginning of a new year with a week

of festivities ending with an exchange of gifts on April 1. But in 1563 King Charles IX

decreed that the new year would officially begin January 1.

Sixteenth-century news did not spread fast, and some didn’t hear about the change.

People who continued to celebrate the new year in April were considered “fools.” They

were sent on “fools’ errands,” given joke gifts, and invited to nonexistent parties. Children

would secretly tape a paper fish to the back of a victim. These fools were known a Poisson

d’avril, or “April Fish,” because like young fish they were easily caught.

Have you ever been fooled? Want to get your own back? Put rolled up newspaper in

the toes of someone’s shoes. They’ll think their shoes have shrunk!

The origin of April Fools’ Day is uncertain, but what we do know for sure is that it’ll be

around for a long time to come. So watch out, and happy pranking!

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