A version of the text below, and the picture, first appeared on the blog last year around this time. Seeing as I’m busily preparing for tomorrow’s (hopefully un-fishy) conference, I’ll just leave it here . . .
Happy [almost] April Fool’s Day!
[Consider yourself warned: it’s coming tomorrow!]
And consider yourself “fished”!
Le poisson d’avril, or literally “the April fish,” is a time-honored French tradition on April first. Usually it involves sneaking a (fake) fish onto someone’s clothing or among their things. I remember days in French class making construction paper fish to tape to people’s backs very fondly!
Wikipedia actually has a pretty good write-up about it (though you may have to translate the page). About halfway through the article, they talk about fishing traditions and how “open fish season” historically began on April 1. In a celebration of fishing, real fish would be hung on people’s backs as a joke–perhaps about the abundance of fish at the beginning of the season, or perhaps for luck. The article goes on to discredit this idea after explaining it–apparently the dates don’t line up–but it still seems awfully reasonable to me. Maybe several different occasions for pranking have morphed together over the years?
The actual reason behind our paper fish may be lost to time, but then again, maybe that’s the whole point of April Fool’s Day. 😉
Be on the lookout for other pranks this weekend–Reedsy in particular usually has a great bookish joke going on!
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