In Alsace, we don’t really know April Fool’s Day, and in Alsatian, there is no Àwrillefìsch, literally April Fool’s Day.
Except in the French-speaking valleys, where this use of April Fool’s Day was proven earlier than in the plain of Alsace. Under Charles IX of France, in the 16th century, the date of the beginning of the year was shifted to January 1, people did not get used to it, and could wish the dazed neighbor a happy new year on April 1, hence the tradition of the jokes, the fish comes rather from the end of Lent on this date.
But on the other hand, if the fish is not there in Alsace, the use is very present, and arrives in Alsace recently become French. At the end of the 17th century, we already took advantage of this day of the inattention or the naivety of people f’r se in Àwril ze schìcke, to literally send them in April.
And it is especially the children who suffer from his jokes. Parents would tell them to go to the pharmacy and get some “Mückefatt”, fly fat, or bring back some “Ohwidum”, it sounds like a medicine name, but if you break down that barbaric term, it means “but you’re stupid”. All that sounds a bit like the order of the sergeant to go to the armory to recover the line of sight…
All these customs are surely linked to the weather in April, with its sudden changes in weather, sleet, snow, winds and frosts, the famous “Nàrrewatter”, the “crazy weather” of April. Moreover, you find the word “nàrr” in the nickname of victims who fell for these often innocent jokes. They are called the “àwrillenàrre”, the April Fools.
I found another old nickname, much less pleasant, attributed only to women, which was called “àwrilleküh”, April cow. The period was more misogynistic than nowadays, I have not heard this expression, in truth, it is no longer said, just like do not try to hang a cow, even a fake one, behind someone’s back, I don’t think anyone would get the joke. Ah, and one more thing, there was no April Fool’s Day in this column, it’s all true!