{"id":3411,"date":"2026-04-01T19:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T18:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/?p=3411"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:14:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T11:14:15","slug":"april-1sy-all-fools-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chr.org.uk\/anddidthosefeet\/april-1sy-all-fools-day\/","title":{"rendered":"April Fools Day April 1st"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
The Famous Spaghetti Tree April Fool’s Joke (from faceboo<\/a>k)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First Reference to April Fools Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first unambiguous British reference to April Fools Day is by diarist John Aubrey’s “Fooles holy day” in 1686 – although he might have been referring to Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘We observe it on ye first of April\u2026 And so it is kept in Germany everywhere.’<\/em> For more details read hoaxes.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chaucer and April Fools Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But there is a possible earlier reference in Chaucer in the Nun’s Priest’s Tale.   This I find quite compelling but most Chaucer scholars don’t. This is the text:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When that the monthe in which the world bigan
That highte March, whan God first maked man,
Was complet, and passed were also
Syn March bigan thritty dayes and two<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, if you have been keeping up with me, you will know that the first lines are referring to March 25th. This was the day Adam and Eve were created<\/a>. The day when the Church started the New Year and the year number moved one on. This was a major Church festival, usually followed by a week of holiness. The Roman New Year, January 1st, ended with a light-hearted festival called Saturnalia, and it is suggested that April 1st was, similarly, a day of release after the festival of the official Church ceremony of the New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chaucer’s last line says ‘Since March began thirty-two days have passed.’ A foolish person would not realise this is a reference to April 1st. Hence, this suggests a Fool’s Day already existed. Some scholars think that Chaucer was referring to May 2nd, counting the 32 days not from the beginning of March but from the end of March. I think they look at the second and third lines which read ‘That high March…. was complete’ and so add the 32 days to the end of March. Foolish in my opinion and not reading what actually Chaucer wrote which is ‘Since March began….’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunting the Gowk<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Generally, in Britain, we play a prank and say ‘April Fool’ with great delight. But we are not allowed to continue beyond midday. The Scots used to call it ‘Hunting the Gowk’ and the main prank was to give someone a letter to deliver, and the person who opened the letter would read:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Dinna laugh, dinna smile. Hunt the gowk another mile<\/em>” and send the fool onto another leg of his or her’s fool’s errand. In Ireland the letter would read ‘send the fool further’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

April Fools Day and Spaghetti Growing on Trees<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I nearly always forget to honour April Fool’s Day (or April Fish Day<\/a> as the French call it). But in Britain, somewhere in our newspaper or TV station there is an April Fools Joke slipped in. The most remembered is the BBC piece showing film of Italian Farmers picking spaghetti from trees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026 – Introduction of Coffee to England 200 years earlier than previously thought!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have had a quick look at the Guardian for their 2026 April Fools Day Story and I think it is this one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Guardian April Fools Joke for 2026<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The clues are the expert is called Macky Arto. The find was in Ness, allowing them to say ‘Ness Cafe’, and ‘Ness-presso’, and the use of a pun ‘It would have costa for a coffee.’ The final confirmation is this sentence: ‘Back in the reigns of Henry V and VI, these were flat white fields …. and a village called Brew.’ Allowing the journalist to make up an origin for the expression ‘Fancy a Brew?’ it goes on to say. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2025 – Coffee Cups as Haut Courture?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Guardian April Fools Day Joke article or the world gone mad?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a34,440 for a Coffee cup shaped handbag? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2024 Meghan Markle<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2024, Meghan Markle was the butt for the second year running. (from the Guardian’s quiz on April Fool’s jokes<\/a>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Meghan Markle was criticised after it was revealed that when you put her lifestyle brand name \u2013 American Riviera Orchard \u2013 into the What3words location service, it points to a statue of Oliver Cromwell, who famously had a King Charles executed<\/em>‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2023 – \u201cMegxit: Call of Duke-y\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Harry and Megan proved irresistible and the Guardian<\/a> reported that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘The Sun published a piece announcing the launch of Prince Harry and Meghan\u2019s new video game<\/a> \u201cMegxit: Call of Duke-y\u201d in which the royal couple try to reach California while dodging obstacles, including rival royals and the media, along the way.<\/em>‘<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post is about April Fools Day. But it is also the anniversary of the formation of the RAF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On This Day<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

1854<\/strong> – Hard Times by Charles Dickens Serialised in Household Words. A recent study of Victorian Grave yards in Yorkshire highlights the grim reality for young children. For the article see: https:\/\/core.ac.uk\/reader\/220156990<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1918<\/strong> – Near the end of World War 1 the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and the Royal Naval Air Service were merged to create the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was the world’s biggest air force, and went on to secure Britain from invasion by Hitler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Croydon RFC\/RAF base for anti-Zeppelin Raids in WW1 and one of the world’s first international airports. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

RAF Rigger, Benjamin Flude<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My Grandfather was in the RAF as a fitter. My father tells some of his story in his autobiography ‘A Boy from Haggerston’:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Benjamin Flude in RFC Uniform. My father, Ben Flude remembers a small model biplane hanging from the portrait. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

‘I was 9 months old when he died, and he was just 28 years old. Everyone seemed to like him, and as a child, he was always my hero. In my imagination, I promoted him to being a brilliant and brave Ace RAF Pilot. But he was, in fact, a mechanic rather than a pilot in World War I. Following the war, he worked with Imperial Airways in Purley, Croydon. I don’t know the exact details and so have to piece the story together from the little information I have at my disposal.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My friend, Roy, tells me that the badge on his uniform in the oval picture is of the Royal Flying Corp. (RFC). But they were disbanded in 1916\/17, and replaced by the RAF thereafter. As my dad was born in 1900, he must have joined up to fight in the war while underage at 16 or 17 as a volunteer. ‘<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How a London lad became a Rigger for the RFC we don’t know, but the Fludes at that time were all employed as umbrella or walking stick makers in the East End of London. I think it is a case of transferable skills. WWI aeroplanes were made of wood, metal wire and fabric, which is precisely what an umbrella is made of. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
RAF\/RFC mecanics c 1917 . My grandfather is the handsome man standing tall in the back row extreme right<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

RAF Mechanic Ben Flude<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My father went on to serve in the RAF during his national service: He writes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ben Flude RAF Metfield. (dad is lying down at the bottom right. he is now 98)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

‘Early in 1946 I received my call-up papers for the RAF. I was to report to the Recruitment Centre at Padgate in Lancashire. This is where I received my uniform after a medical examination, and then there were a number of intelligence\/aptitude tests when they decided what trade I would join. I tried to get Air Crew and while there were no vacancies, I did have a wide group of trade offers open to me. The group that I was interested in was aircraft maintenance and repair, following in my Dad’s footsteps.’<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘However, before I could start, I had to do my basic training. This was designed to get you fit, and we did plenty of square-bashing or parade drills. For this, they sent me to Metfield in Suffolk, which had only very recently been made available to the RAF by the American Army Air Force. In fact, it was so recent a hand-over that whilst on picket duty, a coach rolled up packed with girls who were so disappointed by the lack of Americans that they got straight back on and returned to Ipswich! The motto of ‘overpaid, oversexed, over here’ certainly applied to these Americans in Suffolk.’<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘We found out that Metfield had been a US Army Air Force Base, where two squadrons of Flying Fortresses operated from. In all the Nissen Huts, those with the semicircular roofs, the ceilings were completely covered with pin-up pictures. My bed was just feet away from the huge Crocodile Stove, round which every evening we all clustered – as it was warm.<\/em>‘<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Interior of Nissan Hut 1944, Lasham<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Dad specialised in the recovery of instruments from crashed planes, and was complimented by Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, GCB, GCVO<\/a>, CMG on his ability to fix an instrument he had never seen before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My father’s autobiography, which I edited, is available on Feedaread. https:\/\/www.feedaread.com\/books\/A-Boy-from-Haggerston-9781835970515.aspx<\/a> at \u00a34.18. Also, available on other online book retailers. (ask me and I will send you a signatured bookplate!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First published March 25th 4004 BC and republished yearly on every April Fool’s Day. The section on the meaning of April moved to my post on April 2025. On This Day added in 2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First Reference to April Fools Day The first unambiguous British reference to April Fools Day is by diarist John Aubrey’s “Fooles holy day” in 1686 – although he might have been referring to Germany. ‘We observe it on ye first of April\u2026 And so it is kept in Germany everywhere.’ For more details read hoaxes.org. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “April Fools Day April 1st”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[112,116,113,119,430,321,118,115,423,405,542,10,259,257,322],"tags":[767,61,560,768,769],"class_list":["post-3411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-almanac-of-the-past","category-calendar","category-celtic","category-christian-heritage","category-churches","category-europe","category-events","category-folklore","category-france","category-germany","category-ireland","category-medieval","category-scotland","category-stuarts","category-uk","tag-april-fools-day","tag-chaucer","tag-john-aubrey","tag-practical-jokes","tag-pranks"],"yoast_head":"\nApril Fools Day April 1st - 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