Bon Poisson d'avril...

Bonjour mes belles,

Wishing you all a bon poisson d'avril. Poisson d’avril is French for April Fools Day.

A bit of background of what happens and how the tradition was started...

Poisson d’Avril is a very popular tradition in France that is celebrated today on April 1st, when all jokes, hoaxes and silly things are allowed and welcome!

Journalists read fake news (which they deny of course by the end of the program if not earlier).

Children clip a paper fish in the back of their parents who lovingly ignore it and roam all day with the fish hanging on their back…they are great April Fools!
Friends make funny jokes with each other; everyone is having a good-humoured day.
April Fools Day is believed to have originated in 1564 when King Charles IX decided to move the start of the year from April 1st to January 1st!
The traditional New Year “Boxing” Day, when gifts were exchanged, had therefore to be moved with it but habits are hard to disappear.
Habits die hard and it took ages for people to adjust and decades later many still kept presenting their family and friends with gifts on April 1st.
The tradition never really disappeared but evolved as eventually people started to exchange fake gifts – in general food – and made fun of it!
And if you wonder why children use a fish on April Fools Day… the answer is simple!
April 1st was encompassed in Lent, the 40-day period during which the consumption of meat was forbidden… but not fish … so people gave fish to their friends!
Eventually “real” fish was replaced with fish-shaped cakes then paper fish, and associated with jokes and hoaxes.

à demain, Leeann x