In many countries, the first day of April is a day to play harmless jokes on family and friends. This usually consists of telling a farfetched story in such a way that it sounds like it could be true. When the other person falls for our joke, we exclaim, “April fool!” and have a laugh. In France, they play the same sort of jokes, but instead of saying “April fool!” they say, “poisson d’avril!” which translates into “April fish!”. One of the favourite “April fish” jokes among French children is to tape a paper fish to someone’s back without them knowing it.

Why April fish?
To find out why these jokes are called April fish, we have to go back to 1564 to the time of Charles IX, or Charlie 9 as we like to call him. Up until this time, the New Year…