英语词汇april fool的起源、历史背景-英语词源词典

April fool! All Fools’ Day, when childish pranks are played and their victims are taunted with cries of April fool!, seems to have been brought from France to England in about 1700. But its origins and the reason it is celebrated on April 1 remain un- known. There are several explanations. The oldest says All Fools’ Day is a relic of the Roman “Cerealia,” held at the begin- ning of April to honor Ceres, the goddess of agriculture. It seems that Ceres’ daughter Proserpina was carried off by Pluto, the king of Hades, and when Ceres heard the echo of her screams, she followed the echo—a fool’s errand. Other theories hold that April Fools’ Day falls in April because of the tricky weather at the time; because April is the first month of spring, when people are half awake from their winter hibernation and easily hoaxed; and because of the mock trial of Christ held in April. Still another explanation is that New Year’s Day fell on March 25 under the old Julian calendar (used until the Grego- rian calendar was adopted in 1756) and that people capped a week of festivities with April Fools’ Day on April 1. The French call an April Fool a poisson d’Avril (an “April fish”), in reference to a newly spawned, naive, and easily caught fish.

词汇	april fool
词源	April fool! All Fools’ Day, when childish pranks are played and their victims are taunted with cries of April fool!, seems to have been brought from France to England in about 1700. But its origins and the reason it is celebrated on April 1 remain un- known. There are several explanations. The oldest says All Fools’ Day is a relic of the Roman “Cerealia,” held at the begin- ning of April to honor Ceres, the goddess of agriculture. It seems that Ceres’ daughter Proserpina was carried off by Pluto, the king of Hades, and when Ceres heard the echo of her screams, she followed the echo—a fool’s errand. Other theories hold that April Fools’ Day falls in April because of the tricky weather at the time; because April is the first month of spring, when people are half awake from their winter hibernation and easily hoaxed; and because of the mock trial of Christ held in April. Still another explanation is that New Year’s Day fell on March 25 under the old Julian calendar (used until the Grego- rian calendar was adopted in 1756) and that people capped a week of festivities with April Fools’ Day on April 1. The French call an April Fool a poisson d’Avril (an “April fish”), in reference to a newly spawned, naive, and easily caught fish.
随便看	croesus croissant cromwell crony crooked as a barrel of fishhooks crooked as a barrel of snakes crooked as a bull-s pizzle crooked as a dog-s hind leg crooked as crawley croon crop crops croquet cross cross-acrostic cross as a bear crossing the bar crossing the line crossing the rubicon cross of gold crowbait crowbar crowder crow-french nightingale-french crowherd