Everyday Holidays
OVERSATURATED. The source and finding of many of these obscure holidays come from the various websites that catalog them. National Today is one that is most referred to, which includes at least two events for each day of the year. “I like looking on days that actually have designated holidays, like February 14th, which is not only Valentines day but National Donor Day,” said Paige Ellingston, 11.
Tater tots, scavenger hunts, and jelly beans. Now, most would agree that these are rather three simplistic topics whose purpose does not go beyond the surface level of entertainment and enjoyability for those who choose to indulge in them.
Now take the meaning of national holiday, an event or a relevant cultural celebration that is typically indulged in by the sum of a nation or country. Now if this definition holds true to its meaning, then how come nobody in America knows that national scavenger hunt day is a holiday that does in fact exist.
Pick up or touch any item in the vicinity of your current location and you can practically find a national holiday for it. Iced tea, yo-yos, cheese, Donald Duck, and the Russian language itself are all topics that all have days dedicated to their existence, and that’s only in the month of June.
Most of these days don’t hold just one theme or topic though, in fact in one day four different events can be celebrated. February 1st is a day where Americans come together in unity not only just to celebrate National Dark Chocolate day, but also National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, National Freedom Day, and National Get Up Day.
“If nobody knows that a holiday exists than what’s the purpose of even having it in the first place. It’s not like people need to celebrate something every day,” said Alvaro Arranz, 10.
Believe it or not the United States officially only recognizes 10 national federal holidays, and they’re the ones you usually prominently think of. Holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Independence Day, etc.
Below the federal level of prominence are government-sanctioned national observances, which include events like Mothers and Fathers Day, Recycling Day, World Freedom Day, etc.
If a holiday doesn’t fall into either of those two categories of celebrations, then it is likely that the day was either declared by an individual city or state or was in fact just contrived randomly by a person or a company for promotional and marketing purposes.
“The websites where you can find all these national holidays have oversaturated written all over them. I guess it’s just kind of fun on occasion to bring up that its national cheese grater day in a conversation or scour the sites for really obscure dates,” said Paige Ellingston, 11.
