It’s April Fools day today (in case you didn’t know), if you didn’t then you’ve most probably been fooled already. I used to love this day when I was a child. I was told though that April Fools day officially ended at 12 PM. noon and any trick that was played after that was met with the refrain: –
April Fool is dead and gone
And you’re the fool for carrying on!
Here’s a hundred top hoaxes and tricks of all time on this site: some are hilarious!
There are some interesting facts about Aprils Fools day here, though not a lot is really known about the origins. My favorite has to be about pre Christian cultures celebrating May Day (1st May) as the first day of summer, and it signalling the planting season. In those days, anyone who planted before this day was known as an April fool.
I remember this hoax about the dead fairy. The hoaxer did confess in the end, saying: –
“Even if you believe in fairies as I personally do, there will always have been an element of doubt that would suggest the remains are a hoax. However the magic created by the possibility of the fairy being real is something you will remember for the rest of your life.”
You have got to admire his style…until he sold it’s poor little ‘dead body’ on ebay…. the magic figure it went for was £280. What price magic eh?
As a child I used to be terrified by this poem by William Allingham. I had a book with illustrations of it in. In the poem the fairies steal a child and with disasterous consequences . This poem still has a haunting effect on me after all these years…
The Fairies
Up the airy mountain
Down the rushy glen,
We daren’t go a-hunting,
For fear of little men;
Wee folk, good folk,
Trooping all together;
Green jacket, red cap,
And white owl’s feather.
Down along the rocky shore
Some make their home,
They live on crispy pancakes
Of yellow tide-foam;
Some in the reeds
Of the black mountain-lake,
With frogs for their watch-dogs,
All night awake.
The rest of it (where they steal little Bridget is here ) and here’s little Bridget being stolen: the ilustrater is Emily Gertrude Thomson.
the-fairies-steal-little-bridget
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