Poisson d'Avril and all That

Teachers across France need to be extra vigilant on April 1, lest they fall prey to the amusing annual ritual of having a hand-crafted, coloured poisson papier (paper fish) sneekily attached to their back by sniggering pupils.

Children take great delight in trapping the prof like this, but it’s not just in the classroom where the fixing of a poisson d’Avril (April fish) to the unsuspecting victim takes place. The workplace is another popular spot for this visual blague (joke) in the April Fool’s Day tradition, so watch out for prankster colleagues.

The origins of this wacky custom date back to when France’s ruler King Charles IX decided that the country’s annual calendar, hitherto varied according to region (Lyon’s year began at Christmas, for example), should be unified and begin each year on January 1.

As well as introducing many other law changes, such as “All sergeants must at least know how to write their names” and “the Verification of French Language courses (not Latin)”, the Edict of Roussillon, implemented on January 1, 1567, decreed that “The year begins on the 1st day of January and so must rely in all actions and writings.”

In regions where the year formerly began on March 25, in line with the feast of the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrations often continued until early April.

Despite the change of calendar year, some people continued to offer gifts at the ‘old’ New Year. But as the tradition weakened, the gifts became less and less extravagant, more jokey and morphed into little practical jokes.

But what is the significance of the fish? During the pre-Easter austerity period of Carême (Lent), Christians could still eat fish and so real poissons were often offered as gifts – so it seems that pranking a friend with a ‘fake fish’ was the logical alternative once April 1 began to lose its significance.

As for the language of humour, there are plenty of ways to describe tomfoolery. Un canular and une farce describe a prank or hoax, while there are several words for joke: une plaisanterie (je plaisante means ‘I’m only joking’), drôlerie, boutade and facétie.

An in-joke is une plaisanterie pour initiées, literally meaning for ‘the initiated’ while sortir une blague means to crack a joke. Surely the easiest to remember, though, is un gag.

Want to take things a step further? Any jokers wishing to play more tricks and practical jokes should head to the nearest magasin de farces-attrapes (joke shop). Here you can find things like a briquet lance-eau (squirting lighter), a cousin péteur (whoopee cushion), boules puantes (stink bombs), chewing gum tape-doight (snappy chewing gum packet), un clou dans le doight (nail through the finger), a cuillère pliable (bendy spoon) or a buzzer a main (shock hand-buzzer).

Perhaps we should all keep our wits about us on April 1…