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Polar Bear Swim

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June 21, 2025, marks the 51st annual Polar Bear Swim, celebrated in Nome, Alaska, on the Saturday closest to the summer solstice (on June 21). Unlike many places in the USA’s lower 48 states (and Hawaii, of course), where taking a dip in the middle of June is a pleasure, splashing in the Bering Sea is not for the faint of heart. (Just ask anyone who’s survived falling overboard on Deadliest Catch.)

polar bear swim nome

The water is barely above freezing. In fact, in some years, the swim has been rescheduled because the ice hasn’t broken up enough to allow participants to wade in from Nome’s East End Beach. (Rush in and rush right back out is a more accurate description.)

The Polar Bear Swim is part of the Midnight Sun Festival, held in Nome during the summer solstice when the sun shines for 22 hours a day. Other festival events include the Gold Dust Dash, a four-mile foot race to win a gold nugget; the Midnight Sun Parade, with prizes for the best floats; and the Midnight Sun Annual Bank Robbery, a mock holdup of Wells Fargo Bank at high noon by gunslinging outlaws.

At 2 pm, roughly 100 people are expected to brave the icy water in bikinis, Speedos, and various costumes. A bonfire will be built on the beach, allowing everyone to warm up quickly after leaving the water. All swimmers will receive a certificate of achievement and join the ranks of those who have taken the plunge since 1975.

Whether it sounds like a rollicking good time or makes you want to dive under an electric blanket, there’s no doubt Nome’s Polar Bear Swim is a wacky holiday to rival Canada’s International Hair Freezing Day.

So jump in and tell your friends, “Come on in, the water’s f-f-f-freezing!”

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World Sauntering Day

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world sauntering day

Grand Hotel porch: made for rockin’ and strollin’

Today is World Sauntering Day, also known as International Sauntering Day. Initially conceived as a curative to the scourge of jogging, this holiday is perfect for our age of screens and short attention spans.

The first official saunter reportedly took place at Michigan’s Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island. Participants strolled across the 660-foot porch, which the hotel claims is the longest in existence.

W.T. Rabe invented the holiday in 1979 in response to what he saw as an alarming rise in the popularity of jogging. He saw World Sauntering Day as a way to counteract the tendency to rush through life, to remind people to slow down and enjoy themselves.

“You don’t care where you’re going, how you’re going, or how long it takes to get there,” Rabe explained. “The idea is to smell the roses and to pay attention to the world around you.”

That wasn’t Rabe’s first contribution to the world of wacky holidays. In 1976, as public relations director for Lake Superior State University (LSSU), he created the Banished Words List. (Its full name is List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use or General Uselessness.) The college receives nominations for banishment from around the world, encompassing all manner of words and phrases worthy of exile.

W.T. Rabe passed away in 1992. We wonder if he had any idea just how prescient his tongue-in-cheek creation was; how much we would all need to pause, look up from our screens, forget the to-do list, and amble, mosey, and sashay through our day.

Happy World Sauntering Day!

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June 16 is Ladies’ Day

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ladies' day

It’s a good thing they changed the logo.

Today is Ladies’ Day, originally devised to attract women to baseball games and convert them into fans. In actuality, it was designed to sell more tickets by getting men to bring their wives and, by extension, their children to games. (While women wouldn’t win the right to cast a ballot for nearly 40 years, we hope they got a vote in this case.)

The New York Gothams’ management held the first Ladies’ Day on Tuesday, June 16, 1883, at the Polo Grounds in Manhattan. All women, both escorted and unescorted, were admitted free of charge. This was quite progressive for the time, since unescorted women were considered “loose” or “of ill repute.” The Gothams beat the Cleveland Spiders 5-2 that day. (The team later changed its name to the New York Giants.)

Ladies’ Day proved so popular that it became a weekly tradition for many ball clubs. As more women began to fill the grandstands, baseball games gradually evolved into a more family-oriented affair. Never underestimate the power of marketing to change the world.

Happy Ladies’ Day to one and all!

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June 15 is Magna Carta Day

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magna carta dayMagna Carta Day, explained in the style of Jeff Spicoli:

In 1215, the king of England was a total wad, so a bunch of rich baron dudes got together and decided his divine right was bogus, so they drew up some cool rules they called the Great Charter until somebody said it sounded way more righteous in Latin. They took it to the king on June 15th and told him, “Sign it, or you’ll never party again,” which was a gnarly scene for a minute, but then he signed it. 

The Pope was not cool with that and said, “Later, dudes!” and kicked all the baron guys out of the church. But none of it matters anyhow because Julius Caesar’s calendar was a mess so we use a different one now, which means the Carta got signed on June 8th, but then, like, did it even happen?

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