Fish hanging on the back, various and varied hoaxes, more or less successful jokes… April 1st is, in France more than elsewhere – even if the custom also exists abroad – the day of jokes. But where does this tradition come from?
A change of calendar
If it is always difficult to be categorical, the hypothesis most often retained is quite logical: from the 7th century until 1564 and the Edict of Roussillon of King Charles IX, the year begins, in France, on the 25 March (corresponding to the Christian feast of the Annunciation), sometimes with variations depending on the region.
A unification of calendars is gradually taking place throughout Europe and Chancellor Michel de l’Hospital, who prepares the Edict of Roussillon, takes up the logic used by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and which will be generalized in the rest of the Christian world by Pope Gregory XV in 1622, by starting the year on the first day of January.
However, a fairly established tradition – inherited from customs in Rome, where these gifts were called “gifts” in honor of the goddess Strena – led the French to give each other gifts to celebrate the passing of the year, at the period from March 25 to April 1. And it is she who will be maintained, but “for laughs”. So we start giving each other gifts, which will little by little become fake presents, then hoaxes and jokes to mark this “false” New Year.
In other northern European countries, such as England, April 1 is more clearly linked to the medieval tradition of the “Feast of Fools”, Carnival, which was held at the end of March. We also speak in English ofapril fool’s day (“April Fools’ Day”).
Why fish?
The origin of “April Fool’s Day” is more disputed. In his Dictionary of proverbs and proverbial expressions of the French languagepublished in 1842, the grammarian Pierre-Marie Quitard attempted to synthesize various hypotheses:
- The story of the Prince of Lorraine: a first would be that a prince of Lorraine, prisoner in the castle of Nancy on the orders of Louis XIII, escaped by swimming across the Meurthe on April 1st.
- Fishing day: The fishing season began in early April, but fish were then few and difficult to catch. The elusive “April Fool’s Day” would therefore be an allusion “to the custom of catching simple and gullible people by offering them bait which escapes them as fish, in April, escape fishermen”.
- An allusion to Jesus: another hypothesis, put forward, according to Pierre-Marie Quitard, by the 17th century grammarian Fleury de Bellingen: April Fools’ Day refers to the passion of Christ, and to his dismissal “from Anna to Caiaphas, from Caiaphas to Pilate, from Pilate to Herod, and from Herod to Pilate.” Medieval skits played this referral from authority to authority, but would have replaced the figure of Jesus with that of the fish so as not to offend him, the fish being, moreover, a symbol used by the first Christians. Or – but Mr. Quitard doubts this hypothesis – it would be a distortion of the term “passion”.
- L’explication zodiacale : last possible explanation, April corresponds to the sign of Pisces in the zodiacal calendar, it is therefore this animal which would have been used to symbolize the festival.
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