Welcome to Worldwide Weird Holidays, where you’ll find a new reason to celebrate every day of the year.
Chester Greenwood Day
Chester Greenwood Day Even if you’ve never heard of Chester Greenwood, chances are, he’s been keeping your ears warm for years. Greenwood was born on December 4, 1858, in Farmington, Maine. At the age of fifteen, he fashioned the first pair of earmuffs, with his grandmother’s help, from wire, beaver fur, and velvet. He was […]
International Sweater Vestival
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 […]
Krampus
On Santa’s List Day, we suggested that children who learn the list of who’s naughty and nice has been finalized might be tempted to misbehave in the remaining days before Christmas, with no fear of reprisal. Krampus, today’s holiday, should thoroughly dispel that notion. Krampus may have originated as a pagan figure in Europe’s Alpine regions, […]
Santa’s List Day
Today is Santa’s List Day. According to legend, it’s the day when Kris Kringle finalizes his list, double-checks it for accuracy, and puts the elves to work manufacturing gifts for children who’ve toed the line of acceptable behavior within their age groups. Times have changed at the North Pole. Nowadays, many parents and mental health […]
Make a Gift Day
Today is Make a Gift Day. The holidays are nearly here; time is running out. Save your cash and make something by hand. It’s fun to do, and a homemade gift will mean much more to your loved ones than something you buy in a store. Here are seven ideas to get you started. (And […]
Eat a Red Apple Day
Today is Eat a Red Apple Day. Unlike the freewheeling, any-apple-goes International Eat an Apple Day (September 17), today is all about the reds: Delicious, Rome, Ambrosia, Braeburn, McIntosh, Cameo, Empire, Macoun, Rubyfrost, Cortland, Jonagold, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Snapdragon, Gala, Fuji, Reinette, Lady, Baldwin, Gravenstein, Liberty, Northern Spy, Cripps Pink, Sweet Tango and more Remember the adage: Consuming […]
Pins and Needles Day
Today is Pins and Needles Day, but it has nothing to do with anxiety, diabetic neuropathy, or the creepy sensation you get after sleeping all night on your arm. On November 27, 1937, musical revue Pins and Needles opened on Broadway in New York City. Comprised of skits lampooning fascist dictators and their sympathizers, bigoted Daughters of the American […]
D.B. Cooper Day
On November 24, 1971, a man who identified himself as Dan Cooper boarded a Northwest Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington. He was wearing a suit, had no discernible accent, drank bourbon and soda, and smoked several cigarettes. He also handed a flight attendant an exceedingly polite note informing her he had a […]
Start Your Own Country Day
Today is Start Your Own Country Day. According to legend, it was introduced at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City to honor “those free-spirited souls who dared to hope and believe in a better world where they too could declare any land their own.” We’ve been unable to confirm that account. No matter […]
World Hello Day
November 21st is World Hello Day, also known as Greet Ten People for Peace. It was founded in 1973 by brothers Brian and Michael McCormack, university students at the time, in response to the Yom Kippur War. “We wanted to do something to celebrate the importance of personal communication to preserving peace,” Michael McCormack later explained. They wrote to world […]