Welcome to Worldwide Weird Holidays, where you’ll find a new reason to celebrate every day of the year.
Dictionary Day
An immense effect may be produced by small powers wisely and steadily directed. Noah Webster, 1821 Dictionary Day was founded to celebrate the life of Noah Webster, born on October 16, 1758. Why would anyone spend twenty-seven years of his life working in solitude to produce an American dictionary? Webster sought to create a unifying, […]
Global Handwashing Day
Today is Global Handwashing Day. We know, we know: eww! When it comes to that ill-advised hot dog wolfed at a highway rest stop, we are all like Mulder on the X-Files: we want to believe. That counter’s clean, the food freshly prepared by people who treat every day as handwashing day. So this must […]
national lowercase day
While English majors past, present, and future may grind their teeth in frustration, freewheeling texters will love today’s holiday: national lowercase day! This is the day to turn your back on the rules of capitalization if you were ever facing them at all. This fun, unofficial holiday has no clear author or point of origin. […]
Columbus Day
Columbus Day might not seem to qualify as a weird holiday, but why not take a closer look? Why do we celebrate the second Monday in October every year? How did this become a federal holiday in 1968? A Congressional Research Service report entitled Federal Holidays: Evolution and Application explains: By commemorating Christopher Columbus’s remarkable voyage, the […]
International Skeptics Day
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, still exists. Philip K. Dick I’m not sure how he’d feel about International Skeptics Day since there’s no evidence that it’s an official holiday anywhere. Considering the number of skeptical organizations worldwide, perhaps it should be. The sticklers among us might point out that Skeptics […]
Kraken Myths and Legends Day
Technically, there are five International Cephalopod Awareness Days (ICAD) in the annual celebration of the most intelligent invertebrates in the world. The first Cephalopod Awareness Day was established in 2007 by members of The Octopus News Magazine Online forum (TONMO) to bring attention to the diversity, conservation, and biology of the world’s cephalopods. Octopi have […]
Hug A Drummer Day
Today is Hug a Drummer Day. Some in the U.S. call it National Hug a Drummer Day, but it’s been celebrated internationally for many years. Though it appears the music industry invented this holiday, that shouldn’t make us cynical. After all, behind every great group, quite literally, is a great drummer. Without a talented percussionist to […]
International Beer and Pizza Day
Today is International Beer and Pizza Day, an unofficial holiday founded in 2016 by website designer Nick Saulino to pay tribute to one of the greatest food and drink pairings in human history. Beer is not a recent invention. When people began to cultivate grains about 10,000 years ago, they may have stumbled upon the tasty byproduct […]
International Top Spinning Day
Today is International Top Spinning Day, created in 2003 by the Spinning Top & Yo-Yo Museum of Burlington, WI, to celebrate one of the oldest toys in the world. It always takes place on the second Wednesday of October. The earliest known tops, constructed of clay, date back to around 3500 BC. Archaeologists discovered them […]
Presidential Debate Day
Today is Presidential Debate Day. It commemorates the first televised debate, which aired on September 26, 1960, and changed the way American citizens select their leaders. Democratic senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard M. Nixon met in a Chicago studio to debate domestic policies. Kennedy, telegenic and seemingly at ease in front of […]