Welcome to Worldwide Weird Holidays, where you’ll find a new reason to celebrate every day of the year.
October 28 is National Chocolate Day
Today is National Chocolate Day. There are thirty “national” chocolate-themed holidays celebrated every year in the United States: dark, bittersweet, milk, white, cream-filled, to name a few, with Chocolate Covered Anything Day taking care of whatever else may have been lost in the shuffle. While it’s unclear if these holidays originated with a candy manufacturer, it […]
October 24 is World Tripe Day
If dedication and effort are any indication, the holiday known as World Tripe Day is as real as it gets. Since 2012, the Tripe Marketing Board (TMB) has campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of the hidden virtues of consuming, or at least discussing, the stomachs of ruminant mammals. The TMB was set up in 1992 to replace the […]
October 23 is National Mole Day
National Mole Day is not a time to pay tribute to cute furry diggers, secret agents, Mexican sauces, freckles or skin tags. (By the way, you really ought to have that thing checked out.) Once a year on October 23 from 6:02 a.m. to 6:02 p.m., National Mole Day celebrates Avogadro’s Number (6.02 x 1023), […]
INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY
Today is INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY, celebrated on June 28 and October 22 each year. Derek Arnold created the unofficial holiday in October 2000 to bring attention to those who abuse the caps lock key and, by extension, everyone who receives their emails, texts, and Internet screeds. Arnold claimed he had a higher purpose in mind, stating: […]
La Tomatina
Today is La Tomatina, a legendary festival held on the last Wednesday of August in the Spanish town of Buñol. Thousands come from around the world to participate in what is billed as the World’s Biggest Food Fight. The tradition is only 72 years old, relatively new in European terms, but no one can seem […]
August 30 is Hellespont Swim Day
Today is Hellespont Swim Day, when participants will follow the path swum in 1810 by Lord Byron, an English poet and a leader in the Romantic movement. Byron chose the course in honor of the Greek myth of lovers Leander and Hero. Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite, lived in a tower in Sestos (the present-day […]
August 29 is National Chop Suey Day
Today is National Chop Suey Day. It honors the popular Chinese-American dish of uncertain provenance. Legends abound regarding the origin of chop suey. Some say it was invented in the 1860s by a Chinese cook in San Franciso who, fearing he would be beaten by a rowdy bunch of miners demanding food after hours, served them a […]
August 28 is National Bow Tie Day
Today is National Bow Tie Day, inaugurated on August 28, 2012, to celebrate the quirky neck accessory. Croatian mercenaries of the 17th century tied scarves around their necks to hold their shirt tops together. French soldiers brought the style home after the end of the Thirty Years’ War. They called it the cravat, derived from […]
August 27 is National Petroleum Day
Today is National Petroleum Day, also known as Oil and Gas Industry Appreciation Day. Crude oil was first pumped from the ground in China’s Sichuan Province 2,500 years ago. Its discovery in the U.S. is credited to Edwin L. Drake who, on August 27, 1859, struck oil 70 feet below the surface of Titusville, PA. The […]
August 26 is Women’s Equality Day
Today is Women’s Equality Day, created in 1972 to commemorate the date in 1920 when, after decades of effort by activists across the country, the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, granting women the right to vote. Fifty years later, on August 26, 1970, feminist Betty Friedan led a nationwide protest called the Women’s Strike […]