Lé Jour des Coues

April 1st is lé Jour des Coues - the day of the tails. Traditionally the prank for the day was to attach a long piece of paper or rag to someone's back.

 

La coue is the tail, but it's also one of the names for du fliancouais, a sticky plant called in English goosegrass or cleavers (Galium aparine). Fliancouais derives from verb fliantchi = to throw, and throwing stems of goosegrass from hedgerows at other children's backs so they stuck there as tails was a traditional children's prank. Pendre eune coue à tchitch'un l'preunmyi d'Avri pouor en faithe un Paîsson d'Avri  = to hang a tail on someone on April 1st to make an April Fool of them.

 

Frank Le Maistre in his Dictionnaire Jersiais-Français cast doubt on reports of this being done as an April Fool, suggesting that the plant scarcely grows around April 1st - however du fliancouais is certainly out now.

 

The newly published Glossary of the Norman Language in the Channel Islands (compiled by Professor Mari Jones) tells us that in Sark April 1st was also known traditionally as lé Jour des Coues and that a traditional chant that accompanied the tail-hanging was (in transcription) "Vive les coues, les siens qu'en portent!" (long live the tails, those who wear them). In Guernésiais, the chant was "La coue, la coue!"