By Savanna Stevens, Special to Nighthawk News
Bubble Wrap Appreciation. Barbie-in-a-Blender Day. Big Forehead Day, National Have a Bad Day Day. Thumb Appreciation Day. Somehow, these are all “National Day of…” observances, and these examples are only a few of the many weird ones.
Everybody knows the classic holidays that nearly everyone celebrates, like Christmas and Halloween, but there are so many national days every day that few people know about. Maybe every now and then you’ll hear about one on the morning announcements or see one while scrolling through TikTok, but there’s so many more than you think.
There’s a funky national day every single day, and sometimes a couple in one day. So how do they choose which one for the announcements? Broadcast teacher Monica Penn lets her students pick each day.
“They can look through and pick whichever one,” Penn explained. “I have a list of our chart on the board of who is doing every job each day for the morning announcements and then each gets a day to make the script, so when it’s their script, they get to pick the day.”
Talking to students, some of the national days people had heard about the most were everything from National Kick a Ginger Day to National Barbie Day, National Ken Day, plus some of the food days, like National Hot Dog Day and National Spaghetti Day. While most people don’t “celebrate” any of these days, some people do enjoy the ones that look most fun to them.
“I celebrate National Spaghetti Day because I love spaghetti, because I’m Italian,” sophomore Tori Vanacore said.
While some people have a reason to celebrate or a connection to a day, others celebrate as a joke or do it when it affects them or someone close to them, like sophomore Jaida Snyder.
“I celebrate National Kick a Ginger Day, National Best Friend Day, National Boyfriend Day and National Girlfriend Day for my best friend and stuff like that,” Snyder said.
People have all different reasons for celebrating. Some might just use it as an excuse to have pizza for dinner, but when asked what day they would create if they could create any day, the answers were all over the place. Some of the answers were joking and some were a little more serious, with some people considering trying to make some of their ideas come true, especially the ones related to school.
Freshman Isla Molton came up with National Whale Shark Appreciation or National Blonde Appreciation days.
“For Whale Shark Day, I would say it’s required for someone to take me diving with a whale shark. I think it’s a day they get appreciated,” Molton said. “And ‘Don’t Call Your Friends a Dumb Blonde Day,’ I would make everyone praise me for my amazing smartness.”
Freshman Makenna Kerns’ dream day would be “National No School Day” and Vancore said her dream day would be, ”National Give a Student an ‘A’ Day.”
Some students would rather have days focused on them. For example, Snyder would love to celebrate “National People That Start With ‘J’ and End With ‘A’ Name Day. When asked how we would celebrate Snyder responded with, “People would buy everyone that they know whose names start with ‘J’ and end with ‘A’ presents.”
While many people might want a day dedicated to them other than their birthday, some people – like gingers – just want a day that’s not violent toward them. But with days like “Be Mean to Your Ginger Friend Day” and “Kick a Ginger Day,” gingers just can’t seem to catch a break.
But if you want to make your own national day celebration, the process to try to make one is a lot easier than you would think. All you have to do in order to create a day for NationalDayCalendar.com is answer some simple questions, like the name you want for the day, the day, week and month you would like to designate for it, and finally provide a story on why you would like to create that day. Give them some time to review your chosen day and if they approve, you’ll receive a congratulations email and steps on what to do from there.
But if Jan. 4 is already National Missouri Day, National Trivia Day and National Spaghetti Day, and if Jan. 5 celebrates Keto, screenwriters, whipped cream and birds, are there too many national day observances out there already?
“I say, whatever tickles your fancy, you should do it,” Penn said of someone creating a new day. “If you enjoy this kind of stuff, absolutely. Go for it! But the thing is, to each their own, whatever makes people happy is what they should do. And so I celebrate the people who do.”
Freshman Savanna Stevens wrote this story for her Intro to Publications semester project. She can be reached at stevenssa7663@daretolearn.org.
