On a recent day trip to Belgium, I noticed something strange. In the windows of the all the chocolate shops (yes, there is one on practically every corner in the magical chocolate-filled land of Belgium), alongside the candies made to look like eggs and Easter bunnies, there were fish-shaped chocolates.
My curiosity sparked, I did some research to figure out what was behind the strangely-formed treats. As it turns out, the chocolates marked the approach of “Poisson d’avril” (April fish), which is basically the French equivalent to April Fools’ Day.
The story behind the day begins waaaay back in 1564, when the French king decided to change the calendar for the year, moving the first day of the year from March 31st to January 1st. Apparently some people were slow to embrace the change…no big surprise there, seeing as how I still struggle to remember to change my clock for Daylight Savings Time, despite half of my appliances syncing up automatically. Anyway, those who continued to celebrate New Years’ Day on April 1st were mocked and made to look even sillier for their inability to keep up with the times by having a fish stuck to their back. Some sources say that these “April fools” were stuck with only a paper fish, which I suppose is the 16th century equivalent to sticking a “kick me” sign on someone’s back. Other sources, however, say that real fish were used. Of course the latter makes for a much better story, and it’s what I prefer to believe actually went down.
I guess the French have decided to celebrate Poisson d’Avril in a bit more sophisticated way these days. Children still might mischievously tape a paper fish to their friends’ backs, but the occasion seems to now be marked more by perfectly-molded chocolates than the threat of having a reeking dead fish strapped to your back. And that provides yet another reason that I’m glad to live in 2011 instead of 1564…
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