CULTON: Let’s have some fun with unofficial holidays

Published 9:35 am Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Everyone who is named Joe, today is your day — quite literally.

Today is National Joe Day. It also National Scribble Day, National Spanish Paella Day, National Little Red Wagon Day and Manatee Appreciation Day.

While all these holidays may make March 27 seem like an extraordinary day, its just a day like any other. In fact, it has fewer national celebrations than most.

At least according to website National Day Calendar, you can wake up on any given day to a barrage of unofficial holidays. This week alone, we will see National Weed Appreciation Day, National Black Forest Cake Day and National Take a Walk in the Park Day, among dozens more.

In the last several years, unofficial holidays have become something of a trend. Unlike official holidays such as Thanksgiving or Mother’s Day or even Pi Day, these official holidays have not been recognized by Congress.  Often, these unofficial holidays are stealth forms of advertising with days such as IHOP’s National Pancake Day (March 12) or Dunkin’ Donuts’ National Coffee Day (Sept. 29).

While there is certainly an argument that things have gotten out of control when we feel the need to stuff the calendar with viral marketing ploys, I’m of the opinion that the trend is mostly harmless fun.

I know many people whose first instinct to seeing a social media post about National Tape Measure Day (July 14) or National Lucky Penny Day (May 23) is to roll their eyes and scorn the internet culture that has allowed them to exist. If you are that person, might I offer a different point of view?

These strange, random, national holidays are a unique opportunity to appreciate something we might sometimes take for granted and gives us a reason to have a small celebration in the middle of the work week. For example, Feb. 7 is National Send a Card to a Friend Day, which I would wager is something most don’t do very often. Sending cards is a nice gesture and having the national day for it is a fun challenge to reach out to a friend and let them know that we appreciate them.

Plus, I’ll take any excuse to eat a fancy dessert, which I will be doing Friday — National Lemon Chiffon Cake Day.

So today, go up to your favorite Joe and congratulate them on the sole achievement of being named Joe, because why not? There are worse ways to spend your day.