It's Fish Day in France
Watch your back for fish today in France
Do you smell something funny coming from the back of your coat today? It might be a fish…
Like many countries, France celebrates April Fools with jokes or blagues on social media and in the news. Among children, the tradition is to sneak a fish drawing onto people’s backs, usually their parents.
Called Poisson D’Avril, or April fish, it’s uncertain where the tradition came from. Most sources seem to agree that it originated in the 16th century.
During the Middle Ages, the first of the year was celebrated around March 25 to April 1, when spring arrived and the planting season would begin. This date would often coincide with the Christian feast of Annunciation. But in 1563, King Charles IX decided he wanted his subjects to celebrate the new year in January. The Edict of Roussillon was applied from January 1, 1567. Calendars across Europe would later be unified when Pope Gregory XV adopted the Gregorian calendar we know today in 1582.
So why fish? This is where the legend gets more uncertain. Some say a fish would be tied to the backs of people who still celebrated the new year on April 1. In 1842, French grammarian Peirre-Marie Quitard presented a few theories (link in French), one of which was that it was an allusion to the passion of Christ, while another hypothesis is that it is a metaphor for how difficult it is to catch fish in early April when the fishing season starts. Others (link in French) say it was because April 1 often coincides with Lent, when fish is often consumed. Using fish was a way to make fun of the Church, which imposed a time of austerity.
Whatever the origins, today marks a fun time for kids to practice their fish drawing skills, as well as their stealth. And it gave me an excuse to draw some common fish eaten in France.
À la prochaine fois,
-Moriah
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