What does April Fools’ Day look like across the globe?
April Fools’ Day of the Innocents? How Did France Celebrate a Good New Year and How Are They Meeting the Modern World?
While the origins of April Fools’ Day aren’t unanimously known, historians are pretty certain Ancient Romans, Western Europeans and people from the British Isles had a lot to do with it. A longstanding tradition in France is to stick paper fish on the other person’s back, like a “kick me” sign. This harmless bit of mischief is accompanied by the phrase “Poisson d’Avril” which means, of course, “April Fish.” It’s not the latest trend or anything but if people are charitable, maybe they will give you a half-hearted laugh.
Interestingly enough, fish are also considered a lucky symbol in many areas of the world, and are important in a lot of New Year’s traditions. If you want to go down a rabbit hole, you must know that France switched from the oldJulian calendar to the Gregorian one in the 1500s, and people thought it would be funny to make fun of the old New Year. That old New Year’s Day was … April 1.
The late December Catholic feast of El Dia de los Inocentes, or “Day of the Innocents,” is celebrated in much of Latin America and has become famous for its comedy and prankery. December 28 is a day to watch out for in those cultures. April 1 is still the day of prank in Brazil and they call it “Day ofLIES”, since it is so popular.
In Ibi, Alicante, Spain, they mark “El Dia de los Inocentes” (a.k.a. In December, there is an April Fools’ Day. A food fight completes with military strategy and historical lore. The “Els Enfarinats” tradition is reportedly more than 200 years old and involves a mock military-style “takeover” of the town, where the new rulers get to make up strange laws that others have to abide by. If they don’t, they get “fined”and the money goes to charity. A little flour throwing, a little dancing, and the day of Risk-inspired LARPing is complete.
After a quiet couple of April Fools’ years, many corporations are now trying to convince us that they are really funny. How’s that working out so far?
Sega chose option two and killed Sonic the Hedgehog. There were games like Call of Duty: Warzone that went into option 3, and also the crash test of the Cybertruck. We haven’t seen many of them trying out artificial intelligence-generated jokes.
