愚人節(jié)的傳說

       British legendary 英國傳說

An English story about the day,however,holds that it began sometime during the 1200s.At the time,King John of England was in the habit of making a road out of nearly every path he walked regularly.The citizens of one particular farm village were aware of this.To avoid having their green meadows and pastures disturbed with one of the king' s roads,they built a fence that prevented the king from walking through their countryside.The king sent a group of messengers4) to inform the villagers that they must remove the barrier.Upon hearing that the king was planning to do this,however,the villagers developed a plan of their own.When the messengers arrived,they found what app eared to be a community of lunatics5),with people behaving in a bizarre6) manner,throwing things and running around wildly.The messengers,alarmed at what they had found,reported to King John that these people were so mad as to be beyond punishment.So,the villagers saved their farmland by tricking the King.In Great Britain,tradition only allow s April Fool's tricks from midnight to noon on April 1.Those who try to play tricks in the afternoon become the fools themselves.

關(guān)于這一天，英國的一個故事則說它是始于13世紀(jì)的某一天。那時，英格蘭的約翰國王習(xí)慣于將他經(jīng)常走的幾乎每一條小道都修成一條路。有一個鄉(xiāng)村的居民知道了這個情況。為了保護他們綠色的草地和牧場免受國王修路所將造成的破壞，他們修了一道籬笆來阻擋國王在他們的鄉(xiāng)間穿行。國王派了一隊使者去通報村民們必須拆除障礙。在聽到國王打算這么做時，村民們也想出了自己的辦法。當(dāng)使者到達時，他們看到這兒的人像一群瘋子似的，樣子怪誕，亂扔?xùn)|西，四下瘋跑。使者們驚訝于他們所看到的情景，向約翰國王報告說，這些人瘋得厲害根本沒法處罰。村民們就這樣騙過了國王，保護了自己的農(nóng)田。在英國，按習(xí)俗在4月1日只允許從半夜到中午的這段時間可以搞愚人的惡作劇，到下午還這么做的人自己就成了愚人了。