“Wake up, it’s the first of the month,” I said to myself Tuesday morning on my long walk to Faculty Memorial Hall. The first of the month can represent new beginnings, one month closer to summer vacation, or for some, perhaps something deeper. The first of April, however, is special. It is the day when pranksters like myself and my younger brother get to thrive. For me, April Fools’ holds a special place in my heart, with so many special childhood memories attached to it.

While the exact origin of April Fools’ Day is still unknown, many historians suggest that it began in 1582, when France switched its calendar system from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar per the command of the Council of Trent in 1563. The Julian calendar’s new year began on April 1, so people were used to celebrating the new year on the first of April. However, since news traveled very slowly back then, many people still celebrated the new year on the first of April even after the switch. These people became targets for jokesters who would refer to them as “April fools,” while playing practical jokes on them. These pranks mainly consisted of placing paper fish on people’s backs and calling them “poisson d’avril,” which translates to “April fish” in French. The “poisson d’avril” supposedly symbolized a gullible person who would fall for any sort of bait. 

I attended a French immersion school from first to eighth grade, which meant I spent eight April Fools’ Days placing paper fish on the backs of teachers and friends. In elementary school, my school friends and I would have competitions to see how many paper fish we could put on our peers’ backs in one 30-minute recess. I can remember one April Fools’ Day, I decided to take “poisson d’avril” a step further and write notes like “kick me” on some of the fish to place on people’s backs. While no one actually ended up getting kicked, I did get a very stern talking to from my teacher about the potential repercussions of what I thought was a harmless prank. I learned my lesson and stuck with placing regular colored fish onto people’s backs. 

Even though I am now 19 years old and in college, I decided to relive some of my favorite childhood playground memories this year and play a good game of “poisson d’avril.” I figured placing little fish cutouts onto random people’s backs might be a bit risky, so I took a different approach. I went ahead and drew my little fish, cut them out and placed them on some of my hallmates’ doors. The perfect college edition of “poisson d’avril,” am I right? I immediately started seeing my cute little fishies on my friends’ private stories who were clearly questioning why there were these little fish cutouts on their doors. A perfect and harmless prank, I thought to myself. 

Many of my childhood friends who did not attend my French immersion school couldn’t quite grasp the concept of “poisson d’avril,” so we would often play more traditional practical jokes on each other. One of my craziest April Fools’ memories is from fourth grade, when my practical joke on my mom might have gone a tad too far. Earlier that day, my friend and I had seen a video on YouTube with a list of pranks to play on your family members. One of these pranks only involved two items: a computer mouse and a piece of tape or sticker. All the video said to do was place the piece of tape under the red light at the bottom of the mouse, which would prevent the mouse from connecting to the computer. My friend and I did exactly what the video told us to do, and, sure enough, my mom’s mouse was now mysteriously broken. Baffled by the sudden malfunction of her brand-new computer mouse, my mom called her IT worker, begging him to come help her fix it. When he picked it up and turned it over, he immediately saw the piece of tape covering the red light. When my mom figured out that this was the reason her mouse was no longer working, I learned very quickly to never play this prank again. To this day, this memory always makes for a good laugh with my mom. 

This past Tuesday, I saw lots of practical jokes being played throughout campus. I saw one person hide and rearrange one of her close friend’s belongings, which left her both shocked and confused. Seeing so many people executing such creative pranks brought a lot of joy to my heart. Even though April Fools’ is now almost 500 years old, people are still continuing the tradition of playing practical jokes on each other. I believe this is largely due to the fact that human beings enjoy laughter, which pranks bring a lot of. I hope April Fools’ continues to be a day where people take the opportunity to play pranks on each other. I think that as long as society has its group of pranksters, the tradition of April Fools’ will stay alive. And who knows, maybe next year, you will mysteriously find a fish taped to your back? Poisson d’avril!