Poisson d'Avril

The first of April is commonly regarded as a day for trickery and tomfoolery. While I heartily embrace tomfoolery as often as I possibly can, I am not the most massive fan of trickery. I have come to the conclusion that this may be mostly due to the fact that my inherent narcissistic and competitive streaks rebel against such antics. I highly enjoy spontaneous witticism and wordplay, but there is something about a premeditated prank that rubs me the wrong way. I don't like the odds of manufacturing an elaborate stunt that has so many variables of potential disaster. If this doesn't happen, if that doesn't time out correctly, if it's just downright NOT funny in the end... I don't pretend to deny that this may be entirely a result of me not wanting to look foolish or unprepared. I have a tendency to want to do something well or not want to do it at all. Still, under many circumstances I am fully prepared to revel and dance around in utter absurdity, so it's really hard to say...

Regardless, France is no exception to the April 1 tradition. Dubbed "Poisson d'Avril", somewhere over the course of time, paper fish were given the honor of symbolizing this holiday. The custom is for children to make paper fish and attempt to covertly attach them to the backs of unsuspecting friends and acquaintance. I was lucky enough to pass one or two of these today, paraded about in various sizes and hues. And THAT is the kind of ridiculousness I completely approve of. I particularly appreciate that the French seem to enjoy this holiday on a more public scale as well. Apparently several years ago the Metro renamed three stations around Paris for the span of 24 hours. I can't imagine this made travel much easier for tourists, but I do think the natives probably had a good chuckle. Metro News also posted several "special" articles for today, sprinkled amongst the regular news, so readers can decide which are "real" and which are "fake"... I've attached the link below to the a page posting links to all of the "special" articles at once. I particularly enjoyed the one about "Euthanasia", a plan to offer old people the chance to fly to space with no return rather than deal with the process of dying slowly on Earth... Oh, the French humour...

http://www.metronews.fr/info/poisson-d-avril/mncE!cisCYj8vrLzw/