Welcome to Worldwide Weird Holidays, where you’ll find a new reason to celebrate every day of the year.
November 7 is National Notary Public Day
Today is Notary Public Day, created in 1975 to “recognize notaries for their public service and their contributions to national and international commerce.” Today’s date was selected because the first American notary public, Thomas Fugill, was appointed on November 7, 1639, by the Colony of New Haven. Today, nearly 4.8 million notaries public in the United States […]
Zero-Tasking Day
Multitasking, we can all agree, is not much fun. Meet zero-tasking, a term coined by Nancy Christie, an author and motivational speaker. (I guess today we can call her a “de-motivational” speaker.) Zero-Tasking Day occurs on the day when Daylight Saving (not Savings) Time ends. Christie encourages us to resist the urge to fill that hour […]
Back to the Future Day Update: Cubs Win World Series!
Most holidays don’t require frequent updates. They happen once a year and the details don’t change much. That is not the case with Back to the Future Day, which has continued to evolve since its first observance on October 21, 2015. Back to the Future Part II was released in 1989. In it, Doc Brown […]
October 25 is Cartoonists Against Crime Day
Cartoonists Against Crime Day was introduced in 1991 by Illinois artist Adrienne Sioux Koopersmith, who bills herself as “America’s premier eventologist.” Mayor of Chicago Richard Daley declared October 25th, 1993, Cartoonists Against Crime Day. Later in 1993, Illinois governor Jim Edgar honored another of Koopersmith’s self-styled “holidates” by proclaiming December 3rd, 1993, Day Without Crime Day. […]
October 21 is Back to the Future Day
“We’re descending toward Hill Valley, California, at 4:29 pm, on Wednesday, October 21st, 2015.” Fire up the DeLorean and put the pedal to the metal. You’ll need 1.21 gigawatts of power at 88 miles per hour to get back to the future or, in this case, the past. Today is Back to the Future Day. In the second […]
October 20 is Information Overload Day
Today is Information Overload Day. Why? Here’s a hint. In April 2016, Statista published a study regarding media usage. In it, the company reported that U.S. adults spent an average of just over twelve hours per day consuming media on their televisions, mobile phones, tablets and computer screens, among other sources—sometimes simultaneously. In it, the statistics company […]
October 18 is World Menopause Day
For women dealing with menopause, every day is World Menopause Day. The International Menopause Society (IMS), creator of the holiday, attempts to make it fun by choosing a new theme each year. It’s a little like the prom: full of sweaty, uncomfortable seniors driven crazy by hormones. “What Comes to Mind: Menopause and the Aging […]
August 25 is Thoughtful Thursday
Today is Thoughtful Thursday, originated by Lorraine Jara in 1988 as part of Be Kind to Humankind Week. She created bk2hk.org after hearing about a boating accident near her hometown of Toms River, NJ. Two young men, drowning after their rowboat capsized, were pulled from the water by two young women in another small boat. They had no […]
August 15 is Taffy Sculpting Day
Today is Taffy Sculpting Day on the boardwalk in Ocean City, NJ. It is the first competition in the city’s annual Weird Week. According to organizers, today’s “wacky, but not tacky” contest challenges participants to build a work of art from saltwater taffy. One year, an entrant modeled a Ferris wheel from the candy. Tuesday […]
August 13 is TugFest
Today is the 30th annual TugFest. In 1987, residents of Port Byron, Illinois, and LeClaire, Iowa, decided it would be fun to have a tug-of-war. They didn’t let the fact that the towns are separated by the Mississippi River get in their way. The tradition continues today with 11 teams of 20 tuggers on either side of […]