Verzenderkesdag - Flemish fool's-errand custom

1561

In Flanders 1 April is traditionally known as 'verzenderke(ns)dag' ('sending-day'), after the custom of dispatching someone on a pointless errand. Documented 18th- and 19th-century practice involved sending servants out with a nicely wrapped stone or a box of dead rats, or to fetch non-existent goods. A recurring annual custom; the earliest documented attestation in the Low Countries is De Dene's 1561 poem naming the day.