三、British folklore 英国民间传说
British folklore links April Fool’s Day to the town of Gotham. According to the legend, it was traditional in the 13th century for any road that the King travelled over to become public property. People in Gotham didn’t want to lose their main road and spread a false story to stop the King. A messenger was sent to Gotham after King John learned the people’s trick. But when the messenger arrived in Gotham he found the town was full of lunatics who were engaged in foolish activities such as drowning fish or attempting to cage birds in roofless fences. The King fell for the hoax and declared the town too foolish to warrant punishment. And ever since then, April Fool’s Day has supposedly commemorated their trickery.
关于这一天，英国的一个故事则说它是始于13世纪的某一天。那时，英格兰的约翰国王习惯于将他经常走的几乎每一条小道都修成一条路。有一个乡村的居民知道了这个情况。为了保护他们绿色的草地和牧场免受国王修路所将造成的破坏，他们修了一道篱笆来阻挡国王在他们的乡间穿行。国王派了一队使者去通报村民们必须拆除障碍。在听到国王打算这么做时，村民们也想出了自己的办法。当使者到达时，他们看到这儿的人像一群疯子似的，样子怪诞，乱扔东西，四下疯跑。使者们惊讶于他们所看到的情景，向约翰国王报告说，这些人疯得厉害根本没法处罚。村民们就这样骗过了国王，保护了自己的农田。在英国，按习俗在4月1日只允许从半夜到中午的这段时间可以搞愚人的恶作剧，到下午还这么做的人自己就成了愚人了。
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