Let’s Celebrate (Or: What Ferris Wheels, Pizza, and Bubble Wrap Have in Common)

These past few weeks, my Saturday blogs have been very… topical. Very based in the reality of 2020. So today, I thought I’d do something that was just plain fun.

Earlier this week, I wrote about today being Batman Day. But it’s also another special holiday. It’s…. International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

(For the record, I kind of love that Talk Like a Pirate Day and Batman Day are both happening at the same time. I’d tell you to imagine a Pirate Batman, but DC already did that for us.)

So… argh, me mateys! Batten down the hatches! Shiver me timbers! Um…. Polly wants a cracker!

Okay… I think it’s safe to say I’d make a pretty lousy pirate. (I can’t even swim.)

But today got me thinking about weird holidays. Because there are a lot of them. (We librarians know this very well; we tend to utilize unusual observances for displays. Nothing says “Read Me” like countless Italian cookbooks in honor of Cheese Pizza Day–which was Sept. 5, if you were curious.)

So, why do we make up these strange, oddly specific holidays?

Well, I think the answer to that is simple. Why not? Why not take a day to appreciate bubble wrap (Jan. 27)? Or to set aside time to eat what you want (May 11)? Or to celebrate apple turnovers (July 5)?

We humans have a history of doing what we can simply because we can. It doesn’t matter if the world if flat; if man will never fly; or if reaching the moon is a farflung, sci-fi fantasy. We hear the naysayers, and we say… “Nay!” right back to them.

Odd holidays are certainly a bizarre way to continue this tradition, but who says that everything we do has to be monumental? In fact, isn’t another part of the human story all about finding joy in the simple? Importance in the everyday? After all, it’s each of those tiny, seemingly insignificant cogs that keep us all going. Ferris Wheels might not be ending any wars, but we’d sure have a lot fewer romantic moments without them. (Ferris Wheel Day is Feb. 14, by the way.) And while they might not decide any fates, cameras do help us remember who we are and how far we’ve come. (Give cameras some love on June 29.)

So yes, we have plenty of oddball holidays. But it’s not really surprising: We love to do the unexpected, and we love to celebrate. And in a year like 2020, maybe we need a little bit of random fun now more than ever.

So, me mateys… set sail for one of these other bizarre holidays, coming your way this month!

September 20: National Pepperoni Pizza Day