APRIL FOOL. Making jokes on April 1st is common for many French people. But do you know the origin of this tradition? We’ll explain!
[Mis à jour le 1er avril 2024 à 11h11] Be careful, you may have a fish attached to your back! April Fool’s Day is celebrated this Monday, April 1, and coincidentally, it falls at the same time as Easter Monday this year 2024. Pranks, little jokes and hoaxes, this tradition dates back to the 16th century according to the most popular history. widespread.
In this file, we explain in detail the origin of this joke day and we give you an anthology of the best historical jokes and hoaxes, enough to give you inspiration for the 2024 April Fool’s Day. And for children, find 10 April Fools models to print, cut out and color.
In France, the New Year until the 16th century was not celebrated on January 1, but for a whole week, until April 1, to celebrate spring. People had gotten into the habit of giving each other gifts. It was King Charles IX who put an end to it by setting January 1st. At the time, April 1 also corresponded to the end of the Lent period, when a lot of fish was consumed. When the king changed the date, not everyone settled and some continued to exchange gifts in April. According to legend, they were then mocked by others and the April 1st jokes were born like that!
In summary – In 1564, King Charles IX decided that the year would no longer begin on April 1st but on January 1st. This change also shifted the exchange of gifts and New Year’s Eve which marked the transition to the new year. To sow doubt about the real date of the New Year, some persisted in offering gifts in April. Over time, the little April gifts turned into jokes, jokes, and then ploys to trick others.
But the origin of the fish associated with April 1 is disputed and several versions exist. The ban on fishing at the beginning of April in France could be the cause of the famous “fish hanging in the back”. Indeed, during the fish reproduction period, fishermen were “offered” a dead herring hanging on their back, which was later replaced by a paper fish. The most religious see in April Fool’s Day a symbol of Lent, a Christian period when it is only allowed to eat fish, while others assure that the fish comes from the zodiac sign of fish, the last of winter, used as an illustration in cards sent on the 1st April to symbolize the holiday at the beginning of the 20th century…
And in other countries? The tradition of the April 1st joke, initially Western, gradually spread. It is expressed in different ways depending on the country. In English, April Fool’s Day is “April’s fool day”. Pranks are only done in the morning in England and if you are pranked, you are “a noodle”. In Scotland, be twice as vigilant as in France because pranksters can also be active on April 2. In Mexico, the only trick is to steal a friend’s property. In exchange, the victim will receive candy and a note telling them that they have been tricked. There is even an Indian version of April Fool’s Day: it takes place on March 31 and is called the “Huli” festival.
It’s difficult to make an anthology of the best April 1st jokes without a little self-promotion. Every year since its creation, Linternaute.com participates in the April 1st tradition with a home page completely filled with April Fools. Rest assured: it will be easy to understand the joke in this completely offbeat fake news in a second. And it’s difficult to go very far in the deception: there is no article behind these titles in the second, or even third degree. As soon as you click on a topic, April Fool’s Day will be revealed. Visit our homepage on April 1st !
The big brands did not miss the opportunity to stand out on April 1, like Burger King, which took the opportunity to tackle its competitor McDonald’s. After posting on March 31, a message on X in which it was written: “Tomorrow, discover our vegetable fries”, the fast-food chain replied to his own tweet writing on April 1: “April fools. Imagine someone actually doing that LOL.” A half-hearted attack on McDonald’s, which had been offering vegetable fries since the beginning of March for a limited time. On the Brittany side, as reported News Morbihanthe town hall of Vannes had posted a doctored photo, making it appear that a man on a BMX had made an incredible jump from the right bank to the left bank of the port of Vannes.
Municipalities were particularly inspired on April 1 of last year. Thus, the municipality of Allauch (Bouches-du-Rhône) announced on Facebook an exceptional “show case” by global star Beyoncé at the city’s Nature theater, on June 10, 2023, accompanying her announcement with a photo montage. Other jokes may have been taken the wrong way by some because they convey clichés. Lille News thus reported the (false) opening of a restaurant in Lille (North) which only serves dishes based on coffee and maroilles, with for example a maroilles fondue in a coffee broth. In the show “Les Grandes Gueules du sport” on RMCJean-Pierre Foucault tried to pass himself off as a listener from Marseille who couldn’t stand people imitating his accent, but his April Fool’s joke didn’t last long.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of the most famous April 1 hoaxes, in France and around the world:
- 1992 : an American national public radio announces that Richard Nixon is a candidate for the presidential election. His campaign slogan: “I didn’t do anything wrong, I wouldn’t do it again.”
- 1999 : BBC 4 radio tells its listeners that the English national anthem “God save the Queen” will soon be replaced by a European song in German. Thousands of listeners call the antenna, scandalized.
- 2000 : the Portuguese sports daily “A bola” publishes an article according to which UEFA has decided to withdraw the organization of Euro 2004 from its country. A trauma for some readers…
- 2002 : the Canadian website “Bourque Newswatch” announces the departure of Finance Minister Paul Martin. Picked up by the British financial bulletin, “The Gartman Letter”, the news would have caused the Canadian dollar to lose 32 cents.
- 2009 : the SNCF which uses the voice of Homer Simpson for its station announcements
Are your toddlers looking for April Fools to draw or color? Have you remained a big child fan of fish to hang behind your colleagues’ backs? Hugo L’Escargot offers you a selection of fish originals to print, cut out, color to properly celebrate this farce day that remains April 1st.
A few years ago, we collected testimonies from our readers about April 1st. Whether they found themselves in the role of trappers or trapped, they told us about their amusing experiences of that day. Like Jancap, who imagined the concept of the “fishy” collective photocopier: “Draw a pretty fish with a thick felt-tip pen on an A4 sheet, right in the center, 4 to 5 cm from the edges. Take a ream of white paper and put it in the tank of the photocopier. Photocopy the drawn fish on a minimum of fifty pages. Remove the ream of blank paper and insert a few sheets of the photocopied fish into around fifteen places. Be careful, put the fish in the correct direction so that it comes out of the photocopied side. Insert it into the paper container…”If you opt instead for an SMS (read: how to send an anonymous text message), try to come up with a funny idea that doesn’t seem too spammy. Your interlocutor should not be overly worried. Why not send him a text message like: “You have been selected to participate in Koh Lanta with your friend Michel”. If you are the Michel in question, there is no doubt that your friend will contact you within a minute to find out why you signed him up for this reality TV game! It’s up to you to continue to take it for a ride or not…