Happy April Fools’ Day
April Fools’ Day is celebrated in many countries on April 1st every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools’ Day, April 1st is not a national holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day when people play practical jokes and hoaxes on each other.
In France and Italy, children and adults traditionally tack paper fishes on each other’s back as a trick and shout “April fish!” in their local languages (poisson d’avril! and pesce d’aprile! in French and Italian, respectively). Such fish feature prominently on many French late 19th to early 20th century April Fools’ Day postcards.
The earliest recorded association between April 1st and foolishness can be found in Chaucer‘s Canterbury Tales (1392). Many writers suggest that the restoration of January 1st as New Year’s Day in the 16th century was responsible for the creation of the holiday, but this theory does not explain earlier references.