Welcome to Worldwide Weird Holidays, where you’ll find a new reason to celebrate every day of the year.
February 1 is NOT G.I. Joe Day but Neither is February 9
When I first wrote about G.I. Joe Day 10 years ago, many longstanding sources declared February 1st “G.I. Joe Day.” Years later, I stumbled across a Joe superfan forum and was surprised to see that I’d been singled out as the nefarious originator of this damnable lie that went on to infect the entire Internet. […]
Curmudgeons Day
Today is Curmudgeons Day, which celebrates the birth in 1880 of comedian, writer, drinker, and self-professed curmudgeon W.C. Fields. William Claude Dukenfield grew up in Philadelphia, PA, a city that later became the butt of many of his jokes. While this is true, many other aspects of his origin story are difficult to substantiate. He adopted […]
Thomas Crapper Day
Today is Thomas Crapper Day, commemorating the death in 1910 of the man widely believed to have invented the flush toilet. Although that is, as they say, crap, Crapper was a shrewd marketer, leveraging his status as plumber to the British royal family to popularize indoor plumbing. He owned the first showroom of bathroom facilities and […]
National Pass Gas Day
Today is National Pass Gas Day. Hot on the tail, if you will, of National Bean Day comes this celebration of all things flatulent. A 1995 study — yes, there have been studies — estimates that we pass gas 13.6 times a day. (Perhaps the remaining 0.4 refers to those that were smelt yet not […]
Festivus
Happy Festivus! Today is Festivus. What is it? Where did it come from? Per Wikipedia: Festivus (/ˈfɛstɪvəs/) is a secular holiday celebrated on December 23 as an alternative to the perceived pressures and commercialism of the Christmas season. The non-commercial holiday’s celebration, as depicted on Seinfeld, occurs on December 23 and includes a Festivus dinner, an unadorned aluminum Festivus pole, practices such as the […]
Cremation Day
Cremation Day is more fun than it sounds. Let’s rephrase: it’s more fun to read about than it sounds. Trust us. On December 9, 1792, the first recorded open-air cremation in the United States took place in Charleston, South Carolina. The decedent was Colonel Henry Laurens, former president of the Continental Congress, who had once […]
Tio de Nadal
Some homes hang stockings from the mantelpiece. Families in Catalonia, Spain, celebrate the run-up to Christmas by placing a Tió de Nadal in front of the fireplace. Although Tió de Nadal translates most wholesomely as “Christmas log,” it is better known as Caga Tió, which we’ll refer to as “Poop Log” to avoid offending anyone’s delicate sensibilities. Feel free to […]
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, […]