There was a lot of fishy activity going around the halls of Northwest April 1. Fish began appearing on people’s backs almost like an epidemic.

The French classes every year celebrate April Fools by cutting out fishes with the words “poisson d’avril” written on them, and then taping them to unsuspecting victims’ backs. Poisson d’avril in translation simply means the fish of April.

“I love celebrating this way,” said freshman Ben Johnson, “because I got to stick a fish to someone’s back, and then I would say ‘I fished them in the back.’”

This French tradition is very prominent in France and mostly only played by school children.

No one really know as to why or how it became such a big tradition in France, but there have been many theories of how it may have come to be.

One theory says that they do this because in 1582, after the Gregorian Christian Calendar was created, people who still continued to celebrate New Years on April 1 rather than January 1 were mocked as “fools” or “fish.”

Other theorist thought that maybe it had something to do with Lent, but no one exactly knows how it started; it just kind of caught on and everyone started doing it.

“A lot of April Fool’s Day jokes play with people’s emotions,” said French teacher Lisa Devore, “So I like to celebrate April Fools Day this way, because I find it a cute, silly way that’s not hurtful.”