The most popular theory about the origin of April Fool’s Day involves the French calendar reform of the sixteenth century.
The theory goes like this: In 1564 France reformed its calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Those who failed to keep up with the change, who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st, had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of this prank were thus called Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish—which, to this day, remains the French term for April Fools—and so the tradition was born.
posted on April 1, 2010 07:14:29 PM
I vaguely remember the poissons reference, which I'm sure is the reason for the fish symbolism. I also remember the first literary reference to April fools was by Chaucer, clearly before the calender change.
[ edited by pixiamom on Apr 1, 2010 07:22 PM ]
