Le Poisson d'avril

Happy First of April!  It is once again April Fools' Day.  I hope that any practical jokes that were played on you today were actually clever or witty, not juvenile or nasty.  But the day is not over yet.  It's too early to relax.  If you were here with me, however, you would be celebrating le Poisson d'avril (April Fish Day), together with the rest of the francophone world.

On this day, a favorite school prank hereabouts is to attach a paper fish to the back of an unsuspecting victim.  When the unfortunate person discovers the fish, he is promptly dubbed a "poisson d'avril."

Although there are earlier references to hoaxes and jokes being played on others on April 1st, many believe that the tradition arose because of a calendar reform in France that occurred in the sixteenth century.   As the theory goes, the French King Charles IX changed New Year's Day to 1 January in 1564.  Up to then, it had been celebrated on or about 25 March, corresponding more or less to the Spring solstice.  It is likely that the change was less Charles's idea than that of his mother, Catherine de Médicis, because Charles would only have been about 14 at the time and he was very much a "mama's boy."

Given that there were terrible religious wars between Catholics and Huguenots (French Protestants) occurring at the time and that communications were neither as immediate nor as reliable as they are today, a lot of people either didn't get the word about the date change or possibly didn't accept the change if they did.  It was a pretty chaotic and unruly situation all round.   Human nature being what it is, those who didn't know about the change or who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between the old date and 1 April were easy targets for "jokes."  Given the ongoing religious tension and the historical evidence that religious fanaticism tragically incites the worst excesses of human behavior, I have no doubt that at least some of these jokes were not in fun.  They were likely quite vicious or worse.  A paper fish is nothing in comparison and thank heavens for that.

Many believe that the "fish" tradition stems from the fact that most gifts that were given at the New Year were things to eat.  Because fish was the most common meal during Lent, most often occurring around this time, it was the most likely food symbol to use.  Some rather grotesque models to cut out can be found here and sea creatures for younger ones to color can be found here.

One of the most famous April Fools' jokes of the past century deals with the infamous Swiss spaghetti harvest.  This was a three-minute BBC broadcast in 1957 that reported about a family in southern Switzerland that was harvesting spaghetti from a spaghetti tree, after a mild winter, and that the dreaded "spaghetti weevil" had virtually been eradicated.  At the time, spaghetti was not widely eaten in the UK and was considered an exotic delicacy.  At least some there were unaware that spaghetti is a pasta made from wheat flour and water.  Hundreds of listeners phoned in to ask how they could get spaghetti trees to grow in their own gardens. 

Now such a story may seem too far fetched to be believable.  But considering the Beeb's reputation, along with the fact that many non-Italians had only experienced eating spaghetti from cans at the time, when I remember my own days growing up in the "back of beyond," I see how it could have been somewhat credible.   Even now, with the internet and all the facts that can be verified almost immediately on-line, many people still choose to believe the strangest things.  And that's the truth.