What are unofficial holiday & observances?
These are holidays that are not traditionally marked on calendars.
These holidays are celebrated by various groups and individuals.
Some are designed to promote a cause, others recognize historical events not recognized officially, and others are "funny" holidays, generally intended as humorous distractions and excuses to share laughs among friends.
Many of these unofficial holidays listed below are humorous, subcultural or student holidays and observances that are many time publicized as
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General Examples
This is an incomplete list of unofficial holidays but will give you a general idea of what an unofficial holiday is. Fun holidays like these are forever being added. Next year when you visit this page, you will most likely find even more holidays to celebrate.
- April Fools' Day (1 April) - April Fools' Day or All Fools' Day although not a holiday in its own right, is a notable day celebrated in many countries on April 1.
- Black Friday (The day after Thanksgiving, or any Friday the13th)Black Friday is the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States, where it is the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season. Since Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday in November in the United States, Black Friday may be as early as the 23rd and as late as the 29th of November. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many employers give the day off, increasing the number of potential shoppers.
- Bloomsday (16 June based on James Joyce's novel Ulysses) - Bloomsday is a commemoration observed annually on 16 June in Dublin and elsewhere to celebrate the life of Irish writer James Joyce and relive the events in his novel Ulysses, all of which took place on the same day in Dublin in 1904.
- Bubble Gum Day - (February 1)
- Buy Nothing Day (The Day after Thanksgiving) - Buy Nothing Day is an informal day of protest against consumerism observed by social activists. It was founded by Vancouver artist Ted Dave and subsequently promoted by the Canadian Adbusters magazine. The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Vancouver in September of 1992 "as a day for society to examine the issue of over-consumption.
- Christmas Eve (24 December) - Christmas Eve, December 24, is the day before Christmas Day, the celebrated birthday of Jesus. In the Western Christian Churches, the Christmas season liturgically begins on Christmas Eve, and is preceded by a four-week fast called Advent.
- Festivus (23 December) - Festivus is an annual holiday invented by writer Dan O'Keefe and introduced into popular culture by his son Daniel, a scriptwriter for the TV show Seinfeld. Although the original Festivus took place in February 1966 as a celebration of O'Keefe's first date with his wife, Deborah, most people now celebrate the holiday on December 23, as depicted on the December 18, 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Strike".
- First Contact Day (5 April) (The day Vulcans establish first contact with humanity) - Star Trek: First Contact is a 1996 science fiction film and the eighth feature film based in the Star Trek fictional universe.
- Four Twenty /International Cannabis Day (cannabis culture) (20 April) - 4:20 or 4/20 (pronounced four-twenty) is a term used in North America to refer to the consumption of cannabis and, by extension, a way to identify oneself with the drug subculture around cannabis. ("4/20" in U.S. dating shorthand) has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. In some locations this celebration coincides with Earth Week.
- Friendship Day (first Sunday in August) - The tradition of dedicating a day in honor of friends began in US in 1935(no references). Gradually the festival gained popularity and today Friendship Day is celebrated in large number of countries. On this day people spend time with their friends and express love for them. Exchange of Friendship Day Gifts like flowers, cards and wrist bands is a popular tradition of this occasion.
- GIS Day (The Wednesday during Geography Awareness Week in November) - GIS Day is a grassroots educational event that enables geographic information systems (GIS) users and vendors to open their doors to schools, businesses, and the general public to showcase real-world applications of GIS. GIS Day is a global event. Organizations all over the world that use GIS, or are interested in GIS, participate by holding or sponsoring an event of their own.
- International Dadaism Month - International Dadaism Month is a month of celebrating the Dada movement. On 27 December 2005, Mayor Dennis "Boog" Highberger of Lawrence, Kansas proclaimed International Dadaism month. However, in Dada spirit, Highberger did not select a specific month to celebrate Dada. Instead he proclaimed International Dada month as 4 February, 28 March, 1 April, 15 July, 2 August, 7 August, 16 August, 26 August, 18 September, 22 September, 1 October, 17 October, and 26 October. Highberger and Cypress Frankenfeld selected the dates by first rolling dice to determine the number of days, then pulling numbers corresponding to every day in the year (1-365) from a colorful top hat.
- International Scurvy Awareness Day (2 May) Official Website: LimeStrong.
- International Talk Like a Pirate Day (19 September) - International Talk Like a Pirate Day (ITLAPD) is a parodic holiday invented in 1995 by John Baur ("Ol' Chumbucket") and Mark Summers ("Cap'n Slappy"), of Corvallis, Oregon, who proclaimed September 19 each year as the day when everyone in the world should talk like a pirate. For example, an observer of this holiday would greet friends not with "Hello," but with "Ahoy, me hearty!" The holiday, and its observance, springs from a romanticized view of the Golden Age of Piracy.
- International Yak Day (April 29)
- Marathon Monday (3rd Monday in April, a sidenote to Patriot's Day) - The Boston Marathon is an annual marathon sporting event hosted by the city of Boston, Massachusetts, on Patriots' Day, the third Monday of April. Begun in 1897 and inspired by the success of the first modern-day marathon competition in the 1896 Summer Olympics, the Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual marathon and ranks as one of the world's most well-known road racing events. It is one of five members of the World Marathon Majors.
- Mischief Night (30 October) - Mischief night is a tradition in northern England, Scotland, Ireland, and the United States of a night in the calendar when the custom is for preteens and teenagers to take a degree of license to play pranks and do mischief to their neighbors/neighbours.
- Mole Day (23 October) - Mole Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists in North America on October 23, between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM, making the date 6:02 10/23 in the American style of writing dates. Many high schools around the United States and in Canada celebrate Mole Day as a way to get their students interested in chemistry, with various activities often related to chemistry or moles. * Some schools celebrate Mole Day on June 2 (6/02 in MM-DD format) and occasionally February 6 (6/02 in DD-MM format), rather than October 23 (10/23), presumably from 10:23 AM to 10:23 PM. Often either of these is instituted as a "second" mole day for schools that run on semester rather than yearly basis, to give both semesters' worth of students an opportunity to celebrate. * Some schools celebrate "Mole Week" around October 23.
- The American Chemical Society sponsors National Chemistry Week, which occurs from the Sunday through Saturday during October in which the 23rd falls. This makes Mole Day an integral part of National Chemistry Week.
- Monkey Day (14 December) - Monkey Day is an unoffical holiday celebrated internationally on December 14. The holiday is primarily celebrated with costume parties intended to help draw attention to issues related to simians, including medical research, animal rights, and evolution.[1] The holiday also cuts across religious boundaries and provides opportunities to share monkey stories
- National Gorilla Suit Day (31 January)
- National Hugging Day - (January 21)
- National Loot Day (13 February)
- No Pants Day: (first Friday of May) - No Pants Day is an international holiday occasionally observed in several Western and other countries on the first Friday in May by not wearing any pants (trousers). The use of the word pants is the American English version meaning trousers (the item of clothing covering both legs worn as the outermost garment). According to the FAQ, it is mainly "a fun-filled holiday", but "from the core idea comes so much more": The recommended No Pants Day attire is thick, appropriately modest boxer shorts. Other types of underwear, including bloomers, slips, briefs, and boxer briefs all work as well.
- Opposite Day (random date, most often 25 January) - Opposite Day is a holiday which is celebrated by many schoolchildren, though often in an irregular fashion and not on any pre-determined day of the year. Typically, when Opposite Day is declared, statements always mean the opposite of what they say. In the sense that it would "excuse" untrue statements, it is related to the notion that crossed fingers automatically nullify promises.
- Pi Day (14 March) or Pi Approximation Day (22 July) - Pi Day and Pi Approximation Day are two holidays held to celebrate the mathematical constant π (pi). Pi Day is observed on March 14 (3/14 in American date format), due to π being equal to roughly 3.14. The first Pi Day celebration was held at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988, with staff and public marching around one of its circular spaces, and then consuming fruit pies; the museum has since added pizza pies to its Pi Day menu. People who celebrate Pi Day usually celebrate Mole Day & Square root day as well.
- Super Bowl Sunday (an unofficial holiday) (Day of the National Football League championship) Over the years it has become the most-watched U.S. television broadcast of the year, and has become likened to a de facto U.S. national holiday.
- S.A.D. -- (Single's Awareness Day) (14 February) - Singles Awareness Day (SAD) is a humorous holiday celebrated on February 14 (although some prefer the 13th or the 15th to get away from the commercialism associated with the 14th). It serves as an alternative to Valentine's Day for people who are single: that is, who are not involved in a romantic relationship. Some observers of SAD do so out of spite for Valentine's Day, as a Hallmark holiday, or for other reasons. On Singles Awareness Day, single people gather to celebrate or to commiserate in their single status.
- Tax Freedom Day - Tax Freedom Day is the first day of the year in which a nation as a whole has theoretically earned enough income to fund its annual tax burden.
- Towel Day (25 May) (a tribute to the late Douglas Adams)
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