Who believed the news about the change of the National Day? Well, I have something to tell you...: INNOCENT!. You were "victims" of an innocentada and, of course, the piece of news is not true.
An innocentada is a joke or hoax one makes on December 28th. This day is called "Sants Innocents". Does it ring a bell to something you might know? April Fools' maybe? Yes, our "April Fools'" is in December!!! It is strange that in Catalonia, Spain and some Hispanoamerican countries this day is celebrated on December 28th when in many other countries in Europe it is done on April 1st. I must confess that when I learnt about that, it made no sense to me. "Why on earth do they have to celebrate on April 1st?" I thought. Then I realised that the different ones on this were us.
The origin of Sants Innocents is religious and it comes from an episode in Saint Matthew's gospel. This episode narrates how Herod ordered his soldiers to behead all children younger than two years of age (not guilty, innocent human beings -from here the name "Sants Innocents") so he could also kill the newly born Jesus, and thus the child could not dethrone him as the king of Jews. Many children were killed but Mary and Joseph could save their baby, as they were warned by an angel in a dream and they fled for Egypt to hide.
You probably might be thinking that there is nothing to joke about this. Sure, there is not. But the relationship with jokes and hoaxes with this infanticide lies in that while Herod's soldiers were executing their cruel order, parents would try to mislead them, so their little children would not be killed.
Nowadays, the tradition of making innocentades is very common. On 28th December there are always hoaxes about recent news (usually very obvious to avoid panic) on national newspapers, local radio stations and, within the family and groups of friends, all kinds of jokes are made. My mother is very keen on doing innocentades. How many 28th Decembers she suddenly awaked me very early to tell me there was someone asking for me on the phone...! She always caught me. I am really really naïve :P. But this year I was in Barcelona as I had to work and I escaped the threat :D!!!
And, finally, as Catalans (I think that this is not done elsewhere) are not satisfied with joking we hang llufes on people's back. Llufes (or llufa in singular) are simple paper dolls usually made out of newspapers' paper. As I have just mentioned, they need to be hung on people's back. The only rule in doing this is that the hanging has to be unnoticed by the target. As a child I used to cut llufes and try to hang them on my mother's back as revenge, but as being like the invisible man is not one of my skills, I usually had to content myself by sticking them on the walls. All this explains why, after clicking the link on my last post, you found one virtual llufa. A picture of it stands for "Innocent, t'ho has cregut!" (You fool, I have mislead you!). Nowadays the tradition of llufes is losing a bit of track. I do not really know why, as it is a funny way to call you: "innocent!".
With nothing more to say today, I leave you this "happy" man and his llufa. Watch your back out!
An innocentada is a joke or hoax one makes on December 28th. This day is called "Sants Innocents". Does it ring a bell to something you might know? April Fools' maybe? Yes, our "April Fools'" is in December!!! It is strange that in Catalonia, Spain and some Hispanoamerican countries this day is celebrated on December 28th when in many other countries in Europe it is done on April 1st. I must confess that when I learnt about that, it made no sense to me. "Why on earth do they have to celebrate on April 1st?" I thought. Then I realised that the different ones on this were us.
The origin of Sants Innocents is religious and it comes from an episode in Saint Matthew's gospel. This episode narrates how Herod ordered his soldiers to behead all children younger than two years of age (not guilty, innocent human beings -from here the name "Sants Innocents") so he could also kill the newly born Jesus, and thus the child could not dethrone him as the king of Jews. Many children were killed but Mary and Joseph could save their baby, as they were warned by an angel in a dream and they fled for Egypt to hide.
You probably might be thinking that there is nothing to joke about this. Sure, there is not. But the relationship with jokes and hoaxes with this infanticide lies in that while Herod's soldiers were executing their cruel order, parents would try to mislead them, so their little children would not be killed.
Nowadays, the tradition of making innocentades is very common. On 28th December there are always hoaxes about recent news (usually very obvious to avoid panic) on national newspapers, local radio stations and, within the family and groups of friends, all kinds of jokes are made. My mother is very keen on doing innocentades. How many 28th Decembers she suddenly awaked me very early to tell me there was someone asking for me on the phone...! She always caught me. I am really really naïve :P. But this year I was in Barcelona as I had to work and I escaped the threat :D!!!
And, finally, as Catalans (I think that this is not done elsewhere) are not satisfied with joking we hang llufes on people's back. Llufes (or llufa in singular) are simple paper dolls usually made out of newspapers' paper. As I have just mentioned, they need to be hung on people's back. The only rule in doing this is that the hanging has to be unnoticed by the target. As a child I used to cut llufes and try to hang them on my mother's back as revenge, but as being like the invisible man is not one of my skills, I usually had to content myself by sticking them on the walls. All this explains why, after clicking the link on my last post, you found one virtual llufa. A picture of it stands for "Innocent, t'ho has cregut!" (You fool, I have mislead you!). Nowadays the tradition of llufes is losing a bit of track. I do not really know why, as it is a funny way to call you: "innocent!".With nothing more to say today, I leave you this "happy" man and his llufa. Watch your back out!
4 comentaris:
Here is the best "innocentada" that I read this last year (sorry it's in Spanish):
http://www.fogonazos.es/2009/12/national-geographic-destapa-el-fraude.html
Good luck!
I almost fell for it! :)
I quite like the idea of hanging llufes behind unsuspecting people.
The best innocentada I've seen was a year (or so) ago with that guy who did the "Chiki Chiki" song. They got his friend to drive him to a back road and they came across a girl stuck in the trunk of a car and when she came out she would only speak Russian. From there, some gangsters came up and started accusing them of eating the chocolates in the car with the diamonds hidden inside. So they were going to try and order them to poop it out. Good stuff.
There was also one with Iker Casillas, I think... something about an exploding chandelier, I think.
By the way, did you just post this today? Because I remember I checked your blog yesterday and this post wasn't up but when I checked this today, it says it was posted on the 28th?
@ Jomu --> very good brother :D, Haven't read the whole text but the pictures are well-phtoshoped haha.
@Isabel --> don't come to my home on December 28th :P:P. I know about the "Chiki Chiki" but not about this innocentada...I think I will look for it on youtube.
About the date: no, I didn't update on the 28th, I wrote the post on January 5th, but I wanted to keep the tradition with the date, so I changed the posting date. These days I've been busy and out in Andorra and, most tragically, I think I got a virus or a problem on my labtop since December 31st -buuua :'(. I still have a couple of post about Xmas to write, but I will post it with the date they happened rather than the day I wrote them.
I realise that I have forgotten some other traditional things about Xmas, but I leave them for next year (so I have something more to write about Xmas)
Ah okay, I thought at first there was something wrong with my computer again. :)
Anyway, just in case you haven't found it yet, here is the two-part video of David Fernández's inocentada: http://www.telebasura.net/inocentada-a-david-fernandez/
Publica un comentari a l'entrada