APRIL FOOL’S DAY
When did this custom start? According to a well-researched story of the origin of the day, it was started in 1545 by a rather unfortunate accident. A Norwegian scientist, Loof Lirpa, was staying in London, where he was trying to find the secret of how to fly.
The scientist was eccentric, but there was no doubt that he was clever. It seems that his experiments were successful: King Henry VIII received a letter from Mr Lirpa, in which he announced that he had finally solved the secret of flight. He asked the king to be present at a demonstration flight at Westminster on April 1.
So the king and the leading politicians of the day stood outside the Palace of Westminster on April 1 and waited for Mr Lirpa to come flying past. But nothing happened and it became the tradition afterwards to play tricks on people in the same way on this day.
Recent evidence, however, shows that Loof Lirpa was not playing a trick: he was in fact telling the truth. He had learnt how to fly, the reason that he didn’t appear at Westminster was that his flying-machine had crashed into a tree, and he had been killed.
It was a tragedy for science. Most people believe that the first airplane flew in 1903, but this is not true. It flew 358 years earlier in 1545. If Mr Lirpa had lived, our technology would now be much more advanced than it is.
The scientist, unfortunately, was very secretive: he hadn’t kept any notes, and hadn’t trusted anyone else with the knowledge of how his flying-machine worked. When he died, the secret died with him.
Although most people in Britain haven’t heared of Lirpal, he is very famous in Norway. April 1 is a national holiday, and people remember his flying trip by having ski-jump competitions. They also eat a special Loof Lirpa cake, which was invented by the scientist, and consists of fish, bananas, honey and chocolate.
Actually, “Loof Lirpa” wasn’t his real name: if you say the two words backwards, you’ll find out what his name really was—April Fool.
－愚人节
愚人节的风俗源于何时呢？据一个多方考证其起源的故事说，此风俗起源于1545年，是由一个不幸的事故引起的。一位叫卢夫•勒尔帕的挪威科学家当时住在英国的伦敦，想在那里找到飞行的秘密。
这位科学家性格古怪，但无疑他是很聪明的。他的飞行试验似乎取得了成功，因为国王亨利八世收到了勒尔帕先生的信。信中说，他已找到了飞行的秘密，请国王于4月1日在威斯敏斯特宫看他的飞行表演。
因此，在4月1日那一天，国王和当时的政要站到宫外，等待勒尔帕先生飞过。但是，勒尔帕没能从宫外飞过。据此，衍化出了这一天设骗局的传统。
这是科学史上的一个悲剧。大多数人认为第一次飞机飞行是在1903年，但事实并非如此。在此358年前的1545年，已有飞行器在空中飞行了。如果勒尔帕先生没有丧生，我们今天的科学技术就先进得多了。
然而，最近证实，卢夫•勒尔帕并没有设骗局，实际上他说的是实话。他确已学会飞行，但没有出现在威斯敏斯特宫上空的原因是他的飞行器撞到了一棵树上，他本人也丧生了。 遗憾的是，这位科学家保密太严了。他既没留下任何文字资料，也没把飞行器的知识传授给别人，对谁也信不过。他死了，他保守的秘密也消失了。
虽然大多数英国人没听说过卢夫•勒尔帕，但他在挪威很有名。4月1 日在挪威是个全国性的节日。人们用跳台滑雪比赛来纪念勒尔帕的那次飞行。挪威人还吃一种特殊风味的卢夫•勒尔帕蛋糕，由鱼、香蕉、蜂蜜和巧克力制成。这种蛋糕正式这位科学家发明的。
实际上，Loof Lirpa (卢夫•勒尔帕)并非他的真姓名。如果你倒过来念他的姓名，就会发现他的真名是April Fool（四月的傻瓜）.
