Today is April Fools’ Day. In Italy it is called pesce d’aprile . Yes, pesce as in fish. Seems it has something to do with the zodiac, the changing of the seasons and the constellation Pisces. In past times Genoans were known to throw fish. Today in Italy pranksters tag your back with paper cutouts of a pesciolino (small fish) shouting L’hai visto?—Chi?—Il pesce d’Aprile! (Have you seen it? Who? the April Fish)
The English have always have an interest in all things Italian. Cheap flights, the Eurostar and they can be in Chiantishire in a little over 4 hours. April Fools’ Day is called Noddy Day or All Fools Day in the UK where a fool is often referred to as a noddy or noodle. Given their love of Italy and Italian food I can see the following Noddy Day prank taken seriously by the Brits.
In 1957, the BBC aired a “mockumentary” on the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland. It showed people plucking strands of spaghetti from “spaghetti trees.” According to one source, the BBC was swamped with phone calls from people who wanted to know how they could get a spaghetti tree of their own.