Poisson d'Avril

Did you know that April Fool's Day started in France? Hah! My degree in French, combined with the fact that I am a complete Francophile, makes me remember useless information like this! I had to do a little research to remember why exactly it began in France. I found a paragraph explaining it better than I could, so here is the paragraph (and here is the link, so I'm not plagiarizing):

France was the first country to switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1582. Pope Gregory XIII introduced the calendar for the Christian world. The significance of this switch was that the beginning of the year has moved from April 1st to January 1st.However, there were some people who did not hear about the switch or did not believe it or just refused to accept the change of the date and they continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1st. Others took this opportunity to play tricks on them and called them "April Fools". In essence, they tried to make them believe that something false was actually true and send them on a "Fools Errand". Today in France, April 1st is called "Poisson d'Avril", April Fish. The children of France fool their friends by taping a paper fish to their friends back and when they discover the prank, the prankster yells "Poisson d'Avril", (April Fish!).

You can imagine the excitement we had in ninth grade French class, with paper fish and a whole lot of jokes.

I have only had one good joke played on me that I remember. (If there were any others, I blocked them out from trauma.) I was working at the Center for Persons with Disabilities at USU. One of the main secretaries left a note on my desk that someone had called for me and to please return her call. I had no idea who this person was, but I called anyway. When the phone was answered, it was a funeral home in the area. I was a bit confused but asked if I might speak with "Ms. Mains." They said there was no Ms. Mains there. I hung up and took a second look at the paper. The person I was supposed to be asking for was "Myra Mains" (my remains) and I was calling a funeral home! I was so glad I had only asked for Ms. Mains! Later in the day I heard the secretary laughing hysterically. Apparently she had put a note on everyone's desks (except for the bosses, of course)! The funeral homes in the area received a lot of phone calls that day. By the end of the day, the person answering the phone at the funeral homes (she used three different ones) was telling the person who called, "Someone is playing a trick on you. It's my remains, get it?" What a good laugh (after I finished feeling humiliated)!