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15 new holiday ideas

So while many of us know of big, major, national, and/or religious holidays, there are many obscure ones out there! You can find out about a fair few of these on the National Day website. However, as far as I know, the ones listed below would be new ones that I think could be fun, meaningful, or just wacky to celebrate.

  1. US Camel Corps Day to be celebrated on May 14th to commemorate when 34 camels were safely unloaded at Indianola, Texas to become part of the ill-thought out US Camel Corps in 1856 (one of my favorite Wiki rabbit holes I've ever fallen down)
  2. Pig and Potato War Resolution Day to be celebrated on October 21st to commemorate when the so-called Pig and Potato War came to an end (for context, this "war" was actually a confrontation in 1859 between the US and the UK over the British–U.S. border in the San Juan Islands that was triggered by a farmer's pig being shot after eating a different farmer's potatoes)
  3. Don't Let Not Being Elected Stop You Day to be celebrated on August 9th to commemorate Gerald Ford becoming president in 1974 despite the fact that he was never elected as president or even vice president
  4. Alligator Conservation Comeback Day to be celebrated on June 4th to commemorate alligators being removed from the Endangered Species List on that day in 1987
  5. An American Family Day to be celebrated on January 11th to commemorate the airing of the first episode of An American Family in 1973, which is widely referred to as the first observational  American reality TV show
  6. International Science Fiction Day to be celebrated on January 1st to commemorate the first publication of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley on that day in 1818 (it is arguably the first science fiction novel). NB: There is already a National Science Fiction Day on January 2nd, which was chosen because it is the birthday of Isaac Asimov, an American science fiction novelist--however, he was born in 1920 (over 100 years after Frankenstein was published), so I think my idea is more apt for celebrating the history of the genre
  7. Fandom Day to be celebrated on September 1st to commemorate the publication of the first issue of the Star Trek fandom zine Spockanalia on that date in 1967. Now, the reason that I have chosen this holiday's name to be more general than Star Trek is because "[t]he modern phenomenon of fan fiction as an expression of fandom and fan interaction was popularized and defined by the Star Trek fandom and its fanzines," and Spockanalia was the first of those and did contain some fanfic (per Wiki's "Fan fiction" page)
  8. Chicago River Reversal Day to be celebrated on January 17th to commemorate the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal releasing the complete flow of the river's water on that day in 1900 (no matter what you think about it being done or the Supreme Court Case that followed, it is an impressive feat of engineering)
  9. National Pregnant on TV Day to be celebrated on December 8th to commemorate the first time an actually pregnant woman (Lucille Ball) portrayed a pregnant character (Lucy Ricardo) on American TV (in the 1952 I Love Lucy episode "Lucy is Enceinte"), it's especially funny because the network wouldn't let anyone say the word "pregnant" in the episode as it was thought to be too vulgar
  10. International Novel Day to be celebrated on October 21st to commemorate the publication of what is often considered the first novel, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu circa 1021
  11. Lesbian Vampires Did it Better Day to be celebrated on December 1st to commemorate the publication of the first installment of the lesbian vampire novel Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu in The Dark Blue (I could only figure out it was published in December in 1871, but no exact date). Carmilla not only predates Dracula by 25 years, but it is better (IMO)--though, it should be noted that Carmilla was not the first vampire novel (the first of those in English was The Vampyre by John William Polidori, published in 1819)
  12. Dreamland Preemie Rescue Day to be celebrated on May 27th to commemorate when the preemies in a sideshow called "The Infantorium" made by Dr. Martin A. Couney at Dreamland were all rescued from a devastating fire on that date in 1911 by performers considered "freaks" at the time
  13. The Travels of Marco Polo Were Actually Written by Rustichello da Pisa Day to be celebrated on January 30th to commemorate the publication of the work circa 1300. But yes, Marco Polo DID NOT write The Travels of Marco Polo and, personally, I think he, at the very least, lied a lot
  14. Tumblr Day to be celebrated on February 1st to commemorate Tumblr starting in February of 2007 (somehow, finding an exact date proved difficult)
  15. First YouTube Video Day to be celebrated on April 23rd to commemorate the first video uploaded to YouTube on that day in 2006

(Prompt by Sylvie Ramirez)

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash


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