April Fools’ Day in Romania

“Ziua pacalelilor” is April Fools’ Day in Romania. We started celebrating it in the 19th century, so it is not a very old tradition here, but people like playing jokes on one another.

There is a superstition here saying that a joke has to be played before noon, otherwise it will bring bad luck. They also say that if you do not play a joke on somebody on 1 April, you will be the one who is going to be fooled the whole year. Another superstition says that it is not a good thing for a couple to get married on the 1 April because the marriage will not last or the woman will be the boss in the house.

Our Romanian character who is famous for his pranks is called Pacala.

Both teachers and pupils played jokes on one another at school today. Our English teacher entered the classroom and asked the pupils to prepare a sheet of paper because she was going to test them from the last five lessons. A 5th form pupil told our History teacher that someone had stolen things from their classroom.