national Archives - Page 4 of 32 - Worldwide Weird Holidays

International Sweater Vestival

December 1, 2017/0 Comments/in December, Holidays by Month

Today is the International Sweater Vestival, also known as Sweater Vestival or the Festival of Sweater Vests. Always occurring on the first Friday of December—identified by some as the second Friday after Thanksgiving—it celebrates the sartorial splendor inherent in the collective donning of sweater vests.

The first known mention of “Sweater Vestival” occurred in 2008 when Carolyn Johnson interviewed the holiday’s creator for the Boston Globe. Who is this mysterious genius? Is it Johnson herself? Perhaps fearing scandal, Johnson isn’t telling; one might say she’s playing her cards close to the vest. Here is an excerpt from the article.

Q: Why should I wear a vest? Isn’t this a made-up holiday?

A: It certainly is made-up, and that is exactly why you should take part. All holidays are made-up – a collective recognition of some person or historic event or cause. These can range from the sincere to the ironic to the nonsensical. In apparent seriousness, for example, Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm established Narcolepsy Awareness Day on March 9. A more arch holiday is 11/11, set aside for the Corduroy Appreciation Club to “hail the wale.” Name your cause and there’s a day: International Talk Like A Pirate Day (Sept. 19), World Wide Knit in Public Day (the second Saturday in June), or National Boss Day (Oct. 16).

The purity of a holiday’s origins tends to get buried in the commercial detritus that blossoms in the middle aisle of local drugstores. So understand that the Sweater Vestival is a nascent holiday – a rare opportunity to get in on the ground level of a holiday, before manufacturers are churning out tiny, edible, foil-wrapped vests.

[Editor’s note: seen on store shelves since 2015]

tiny, edible foil-wrapped vests

More importantly, it is not a holiday about historical figures or causes or ideals: It is about all the other people who wear the vest.

Q: Can you tell me more about the holiday’s origins?

A: The second Friday after Thanksgiving is a lull in a jam-packed holiday season and a perfect day for people to continue the holiday cheer with something subtle yet uplifting. Unlike other faux holidays – such as Festivus, which first appeared on the sitcom “Seinfeld” as a protest against holiday-season commercialism – Vestival is not a joke at all. It also happens to be funny.

Q: Why is Vestival important?

A: On a superficial level, Sweater Vestival isn’t about something “deep.” In contrast, on a superficial level most other holidays are: Veterans Day is about the serious topic of honoring soldiers who have fought in wars to protect this country. President’s Day salutes our forefathers. Valentine’s Day is about love. But if you look beneath the surface, Valentine’s Day is more about candy and overpriced bouquets. Presidents’ Day has become synonymous with sales at car dealerships, and many people see Veterans Day as just another day off, not an opportunity to consider wars and the weight of history.

Despite its seemingly shallow artifice, though, Vestival carries unusual depth. People wearing vests smile at each other in recognition, discuss the origins of their vests, or give each other compliments. At a time when people can feel more alone than ever, wearing a sweater vest is a reason to connect.

What are you waiting for? Grab those thrift store finds; gifts from Christmas past languishing in the back of your closet; or any sweater you have the urge to liberate of its sleeves. (Common sense advice: obtain permission before wielding the scissors if the aforementioned sweater belongs to someone else.)

Embrace the cold shoulder(s) and have a happy International Sweater Vestival!

November 17 is National Unfriend Day

November 17, 2017/0 Comments/in Holidays by Month, November

On November 17, 2010, comedian and late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel inaugurated National Unfriend Day with an advisory about fairweather Facebook friends.

Test them by asking for help with a move, he said. The people who respond are your friends. No one else. He capped off the proceedings with a public service announcement by William Shatner.

According to data from a 2014 Edison Research report, 58% of Americans are on Facebook and have an average of 350 Facebook friends. A holiday begun as a lark has never been more relevant.

In 2016, Kimmel asked his audience to post on his Facebook page who they had unfriended and why:

Happy National Unfriend Day!

November 16 is National Button Day

November 16, 2017/0 Comments/in Holidays by Month, November

National Button Day

Today is National Button Day. How did it get its start and why should we celebrate it? We use this humble fastener every day but how much do we really know about it?

National Button Day may never have existed were it not for Otto Lightner, publisher of Hobbies magazine, who democratized collecting during the Great Depression when he said, “Even with no money, everyone could collect something.” He became fascinated by other people’s collections, amassing them and buying real estate for the sole purpose of housing them. (The Lightner Museum in St. Augustine, Florida, exhibits a few.)

Lightner organized a hobby show in 1938 at the Hotel Sherman in Chicago. Button collectors contributed to the show and founded the National Button Society (NBS) later that year. On November 16, 1939, NBS hosted its own event in Chicago to recognize button collecting as an organized hobby that anyone, rich or poor, could enjoy and declared it National Button Day.

Today, NBS has more than 3,000 members on four continents, with 39 of the 50 states represented by state and local button clubs. Per its website:

Membership in the National Button Society is open to individuals and organizations who collect buttons and who wish to support the objectives of the NBS. Principal among those objectives are the promotion of educational research and exhibitions, the publishing and dissemination of information about buttons, and the preservation of the aesthetic and historical significance of buttons for future generations.

NBS holds a weeklong convention every August. In 2016, “Mining in Button Mountains” paid homage to its host city of Denver, Colorado. Organizers chose “The Magic of Buttons” as the theme for the 2017 celebration in Appleton, Wisconsin. Each year, collectors meet to share finds, stories, craft ideas and fellowship.

Do you have what it takes to join? The answer is yes. Every one of us can enjoy collecting buttons. Look around your home. Maybe you still have buttons that belonged to your grandmother. Have you ever noticed that while buttons may not be appreciated, they are rarely thrown out? You probably have a container sitting around right now.

A Brief History of the Button

The earliest known button was found in what is now Pakistan; it is made of a curved shell and is about 5000 years old. In ancient Rome, buttons were ornamental and rarely appeared in straight rows. Beginning in the Middle Ages, buttons became status symbols made of precious metals and stones. The number of buttons one wore communicated wealth.

The first guild of button-makers was formed in France in 1250. The buttonhole appeared around the same time but didn’t catch on right away. Most buttons remained strictly decorative, applied atop a garment while functional underpinnings such as the hook-and-eye and laces did the actual work of holding clothes together.

Even after the buttonhole helped forever change fashion design, many buttons were nonfunctional. There is a rumor about the origin of the seemingly useless line of buttons along the sleeves of coats and jackets, especially military uniforms.

According to legend, one of three leaders–Catherine the Great, King Frederick I of Prussia or Admiral Lord Nelson–inspected the troops (in Nelson’s case, the sailors) and ordered that buttons be sewn onto uniforms to discourage the young men from wiping their noses on their sleeves. Pockets weren’t yet features of most uniforms, so carrying a handkerchief was not a viable alternative. We’re loath to picture the scene of soldiers going off to battle with mucus streaming down their faces.

Over the years, buttons became increasingly ornate. Among the more extreme were “habitat” buttons, made to hold keepsakes like dried flowers, hair clippings or tiny insects under glass. Hollowed-out buttons allowed thieves to secretly transport jewels and other contraband. (This practice was revived unsuccessfully by a heroin-smuggling ring in 2009.)

Button orientation was formalized during the Victorian Era. Then as now, men tended to dress themselves so buttons faced right for their convenience. Women wore their buttons on the left to make it easier for their maids to adjust while facing them. (The presumption was that most people were right-handed.)

The servants are gone, but the convention remains. Right-handed women and left-handed men successfully button their clothes every day without giving a thought to the discrimination that decided their sartorial fate.

Go Forth and Button!

Now that you know more, it’s time to go round up some buttons. Check out these craft ideas for inspiration and have a happy and fun National Button Day!

November 14 is National American Teddy Bear Day

November 14, 2017/0 Comments/in Holidays by Month, November

Today is National American Teddy Bear Day, whereas September 9th is National Teddy Bear Day. Why? We think it’s because one holiday isn’t enough to contain the cuddly stuffed animal’s cuteness.

Here’s what we do know: teddy bears got their name from Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. The date coincides with a hunting trip in November 1902.

The governor of Mississippi invited President Roosevelt to a bear hunt, but after three days, Roosevelt hadn’t spotted one. To keep the president’s trip from ending in failure, the guides set the dogs loose; they tracked down an old black bear and attacked it.

The guides brought the wounded bear back to camp and tied it to a tree for the president. When Roosevelt saw the old bear he refused to shoot it because to do so would be unsportsmanlike. However, since it was injured, Roosevelt directed the men to put the bear down to end its suffering.

Word traveled quickly across the country. The Washington Post ran this headline on November 15, 1902:

PRESIDENT CALLED AFTER THE BEAST HAD BEEN LASSOED,
BUT HE REFUSED TO MAKE AN UNSPORTSMANLIKE SHOT

Political cartoonist Clifford Berryman drew a single panel that appeared in the Post the next day. In it, the president stands in the foreground, a guide and bear behind him. Berryman depicted the bear as a cub trembling with fear. He began to include the cub in other drawings of Roosevelt, forever linking him to bears.

Morris Michtom, a Brooklyn candy shop owner, saw Berryman’s cartoons and was inspired to make a stuffed bear. Michtom wrote to Roosevelt and asked his permission to call the toy “Teddy’s Bear.” Although the president agreed to lend his name to the new invention, he is said to have doubted it would ever amount to much in the toy business.

The runaway popularity of the cuddly bears led Michtom to mass-produce them, forming the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company in 1903. It soon became a multimillion-dollar business. By 1908, the toy had become so popular that a preacher in Michigan warned that replacing dolls with toy bears would destroy the maternal instincts of little girls. If that were true, there would be no one left to read (or write) this.

A Teddy’s Bear made in 1903 is owned by The National Museum of American History. It’s in perfect condition.

Happy National American Teddy Bear Day!

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National Button Day

A Brief History of the Button

Go Forth and Button!