Oh those pesky Italians.......pasting a fish on some one's back...
The traditional pesce d'Aprile (April Fool's trick) in Italy consists of a youngster surreptitiously attaching - with the help of tape or glue - a paper cutout of a pesciolino (small fish) to the rear shoulders of a school companion. Then everyone jokingly questions: L'hai visto?—Chi?—Il pesce d'Aprile! (or Have you seen?—Who?—the April Fool!) and makes derisive remarks about the victim.
The traditional pesce d'Aprile (April Fool's trick) in Italy consists of a youngster surreptitiously attaching - with the help of tape or glue - a paper cutout of a pesciolino (small fish) to the rear shoulders of a school companion. Then everyone jokingly questions: L'hai visto?—Chi?—Il pesce d'Aprile! (or Have you seen?—Who?—the April Fool!) and makes derisive remarks about the victim.
The Spring Spaghetti Harvest |
I kinda am drawn to "All Fools Day" since we have "days" for Presidents,
Valentines, Souls, Saints etc., why not fools? We have enough of them.
And speaking of the spaghetti harvest....
Those
of us who take the first of April Fool's Day seriously were often the
brunt of the "fish on the back" treatment growing up. I went on my first
"snipe hunt" when I was seven. When I was 9 and playing golf on, of
all things, pesce d'Aprile (seriously) I was on a par 3 and
lined the ball into the woods. My dad said he saw it bounce out toward
the green but I was sure it was deep in so in I walked, searching, foul
mood, argh. Pop was on the green and I couldn't find the ball and he
starts yelling "its in the hole...its in the hole..." Wow! A hole in
one.
I'm going crazy and some folks hear the noise and now it is too late as
the crowd figure this was something with a 9 year old and all and my dad
figured he would look like a miserable trickster for pulling this stunt
and fooling me. He waited until we were in the car to tell me the
truth. We never played golf on that course again. I'm confessing this
as in the upper reaches of Michigan there is a little 9 hole course
carved out of the pines and on the 7th hole is a little brass marker
with the names of all the folks who got a hole in one there and my name
is engraved on it. It can't be removed.
April Fools