With this change, at first, came some pushback from groups of people who were not too keen on the idea of moving the new year. They had their traditions and ways of celebration and it did not make sense to celebrate in January. The season of Spring symbolized a new beginning, change, and the start of the growing season.
Those who were not to happy with change decided to continue to celebrate the new year as they always have. This started to cause some discrepancies with neighbors and other countrymen. Those who embraced the new year starting in January, decided to make of those who were stuck in their old ways.
According to legend, the Januaryists would give fake fish to the Springers to trick them into thinking it was real. There’s also the legend that people would stick real fish to the back of those that still followed the old ways and they wouldn’t notice till they started to smell because they were so tiny. There’s also the idea that because the original new year coincided with Lent, fish were a-plenty and fake ones were given as gifts.