Published: 01/04/2021 By The Abode Team
Aoril Fool's day is called something else in Italy - April Fish.One would imagine Pesce d’Aprile, or April Fish, came from the idea of “baiting” people or “fishing” for responses with joke articles or announcements and seeing if they'd “bite.” After all, the Italian verb abboccare means “to bite, or to take the bait” and figuratively it also means “to be fooled, deceived, or taken in,” just like in English. It's rooted in the word bocca, or mouth.
Ha abboccato e non ha avuto alcun sospetto! – He fell for it and had no idea!
But apparently not. The name actually comes from a common joke that involves sticking a drawing of a pesciolino (little fish) onto the back of an unsuspecting victim. Then, everyone else asks if anyone has seen “April’s fish” and makes jokes about that person – when, of course, the victim doesn’t know it's them. Although this tradition seems pretty quaint, taping a fish onto someone’s back is still something Italian children do, though I have never seen it myself. Italy isn't the only country to have a fishy April Fools' Day. In France, it's the Poisson d’Avril.