In French, the first of April is called “Poisson d’Avril” instead of “April Fool’s Day.” That literally means “April Fish.” I’m really not sure where the fish part came from, even after searching the internet, but I think it might have to do with the Lenten season and fasting from most meat except fish…however, the day is “celebrated” in almost the same way as it is in the United States. It’s a day to make jokes! Children try to stick a paper fish to their friends’ backs and others attempt to trick their family members. But my favorite part about the day is that the media and other public services like to play along too! And even better, they don’t tell you it’s a joke! I mean, it’s pretty obvious if you are aware of what day it is, but the advertisements are SO BELIEVABLE! Just watch some of the ones I found: Single Fries (even though it's in French you can get what it is!) Chocolate Whopper Google Tulip Google Self-Driving Bike (at the very end they stick in a little hint in case you believed it) Google Gnome (I watched this 3 times!!) There wasn’t much of a big deal in my class that day, but a student did put a paper fish on the little administrative bulletin board. And my professor changed a test date, so for a second none of us were sure if he was serious! Oh here’s one Poisson d’Avril joke I really love…so, Harry Potter is a big deal here, like it is pretty much everywhere. The bookstore in Place Kleber here in Strasbourg even had a "Harry Potter Night" back in January. In the French version of the story, the school is called “Poudlard” instead of “Hogwarts.” For those of you who know Harry Potter, can you find the joke in the picture of SNCF train station departures below??? This exact information was in the train station here! (I didn't take the picture though) Hope you enjoyed the videos and jokes as much as I did! -Elda
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AuthorHello! I'm Elda, a French/Anthropology major and Applied Language Studies minor studying in Strasbourg for a semester. Archives
May 2019
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