Did you know that there’s a retail holiday bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday
combined? Hi, I’m Erin McCarthy, editor-in-chief of
mentalfloss.com. Singles’ Day is celebrated in China on November 11th, and it’s a behemoth
of a day for online sales. The story goes that the holiday originally started at Nanjing
University in China as a way for students to celebrate being single — 11/11 represents
four individuals. It became a cultural phenomenon, and retailers couldn’t resist getting a
piece of the pie, encouraging people to treat themselves to celebrate singledom. Chinese
e-commerce giant Alibaba pushes sales the hardest, and they’re definitely getting
results — in 2019, the company sold over $38 billion worth of goods in 24 hours. For
comparison, Cyber Monday sees about $9.4 billion in sales.
And that’s just the first of 18 bizarre holidays you’re going to want to put on
your calendar for 2020.
National Catfish Day sounds like one of those
random holidays that are invented by PR firms and calendar makers — you know, like Chocolate
Chip Cookie Day, National Lasagna Day, or National Chocolate Parfait Day. (All of which
I celebrate, by the way.) The difference is, National Catfish Day is a real national observance
in the U.S., as declared by President Ronald Reagan in 1987. But it’s not to celebrate
just any catfish. In his proclamation, Reagan said, “Farm-raised catfish have come a long
way from their bottom-feeding ancestors.” National Sleepyhead Day in Finland is more
fun for some than others. As tradition goes, on July 27th, the last person in the house
still sleeping gets woken up with a bucket of water to the face. The city of Naantali
goes even further, recruiting a “celebrity Sleepyhead” to throw into the sea.
Do you love Tom Hanks? Of course you do. So you’ll definitely want to celebrate International
Tom Hanks Day on the Saturday that falls closest to April 1st. When a few students at Western
Michigan University created this day in the early 2000s, they were really just looking
for a reason to spend the day watching some sweet Tom Hanks movies while drinking rum
and Dr. Pepper (that’s a Forrest Gump reference). The day really took off when Hanks himself
caught word of it and sent the students some memorabilia. The students promptly auctioned
it off to benefit one of Hanks’ favorite charities, and now thousands of dollars in
donations roll in every year, both online and at Tom Hanks Day parties from Los Angeles
to London. My personal favorite Tom Hanks movie is the Green Mile. Leave yours in the
comments. November 23rd is St. Clement’s Day, but
not many people celebrate it like they used to. Pope Clement the First is the patron saint
of metalworkers and blacksmiths, so to kick off “Old Clem’s Night,” revelers of
old would “fire the anvil” — meaning they would pack gunpowder into a hole in an
anvil, then strike it with a hammer to create an explosion and send the whole thing flying
into the air. Sounds super safe. Before the Macy’s Parade took New York City
by storm, Ragamuffin Day was all the rage. Celebrated on Thanksgiving, the day was marked
by children dressing up in rags and wandering through the street to ask adults, “Anything
for Thanksgiving?” The reward was typically candy, apples, and pennies. The holiday died
out for a couple of reasons, from the popularity of the Macy’s Parade to society frowning
on the practice. Von Steuben day commemorates Baron Friedrich
Von Steuben, a Prussian military leader who helped George Washington turn his rag-tag
volunteer army in need of a shower (name that musical) into disciplined soldiers. Some cities
still commemorate his contributions in mid-September, with Oktoberfest-style beer tents and parades.
Fun fact: the parade in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was actually Chicago’s Von Steuben
Day parade. Here’s another American History throwback:
a holiday called The Eighth, occurring, appropriately enough, on January 8th. It was a holiday commemorating
the American victory against the British in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of
1812. According to some historians, up until the Civil War The Eighth was celebrated with
almost as much enthusiasm as the Fourth of July.
Carving pumpkins? Child’s play. Carving radishes? Now that takes talent. On December
23rd, residents of Oaxaca, Mexico, celebrate Noche de Rabanos, or Night of the Radishes.
People there have been sculpting oversized radishes since the 1800s, when merchants created
the carvings to attract shoppers to their market stalls. Today, more than 100 people
contribute intricate radish art to the festivities every year.
Sometimes you need to celebrate the little things, which is exactly what Bonza Bottler
Day does. It occurs monthly, when the number of the month matches the number of the day:
January 1, February 2, March 3, and so on. Bodacious Bonza Bottler Day happens when the
year also matches — December 12, 2012, for example. The idea was hatched by Elaine Fremont
in 1985, and named by an Australian student: “Bonza” is Australian slang for super,
while “Bottler” is slang for “something excellent.”
Devil’s Spit Day, also known as Michaelmas, is said to be the day when the Archangel Michael
defeated the angel Lucifer. According to one tradition, the fallen angel (literally) plummeted
from heaven and hit the floor of Hell, landing in a patch of thorny blackberry bushes. Injured
and angry, he spat on the berries and cursed the fruit. There’s also a version that says
he peed on the bushes, so choose your own adventure. Either way, now you know why blackberries
are out of season in the fall. As far as holidays go, Galactic Tick Day is
a relatively new addition... even though the reason for it is as old as the universe. You
probably know that the earth revolves around the sun in about 365 days (although a rather
depressing 2014 study found that about ¼ of Americans thought it went the other way
around, with the sun orbiting the Earth). What you might not realize is that the solar
system itself—including the sun—revolves around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
In 2016, a group of scientists decided that this was a trip worth celebrating, too. Unfortunately,
this solar system-wide revolution takes about 225 million years to complete, which would
severely limit the festivities. So they decided to celebrate the Galactic Tick instead, a
period of time equal to roughly eight ten millionths of a percent of those 225 million
years, or one centi-arc second. Of course, you and I know what a centi-arc
second is, but for those who might be confused: The sun travels around the center of the galaxy
in an approximate circle, which is 360 degrees. Each degree can be divided up into 60 equal
pieces, called arc minutes. Each arc minute can, in turn, be divided into 60 arc seconds.
Because of the massive time scale involved in the solar system’s loop, even an arc
second takes over 170 years to complete. So the creators of Galactic Tick Day took it
a step further and divided each arc second by 100—a centi-arc second, which they call
a “tick,” like the ticking hand of a clock. This “tick” takes roughly 633.7 days to
happen. The holiday’s founders chose to retroactively “start” the clock on October
2nd, 1608, the day when Hans Lippershey filed the patent for his telescope. All of that
means the next galactic tick day is March 21, 2020.
You’ve heard of Christmas in July traditions before, no doubt, but Christmas in August
at Yellowstone National Park is a little different. Back around the 1930s, employees at Yellowstone
held Christmas festivities in the summer. There are different explanations offered for
this tradition, but it probably had something to do with the fact that many of the workers
were seasonal employees hired for peak tourism, and wouldn’t be around come December. The
park has carried on the tradition over the decades, with employees and guests alike trimming
trees, caroling and visiting with St. Nick himself — all on August 25.
White Day on March 14 is celebrated by in Japan, and has spread to other East Asian
countries. But to fully understand this holiday, we have to back up a month, to Valentine's
Day, when it's traditional for East Asian women to give men chocolates Significant others
receive expensive chocolates, and coworkers, bosses, and relatives get cheaper treats.
Sadly, it was a one-way street: Women didn’t receive anything in return... Until 1978,
when a Japanese confectionery reasoned, rightly so, that women deserved gifts too. The holiday
was originally deemed “Marshmallow Day,” with men encouraged to gift the fluffy stuff.
Eventually it was expanded to refer to any white gift, even those that simply came with
white packaging. It’s no Valentine’s Day in terms of sales, but White Day still rakes
in around $500 million for retailers every year.
World Emoji Day on July 17 has only been around since 2014, but it’s enough of a thing that
the Empire State Building was lit up emoji-yellow to celebrate the day in 2017. Other Emoji
Day celebrations have included Apple announcing new additions to their already-robust emoji
lineup, and folks around the world attempting to set the World Record for most people
dressed as emojis. As for personal celebrations, could you communicate exclusively in emoji
on July 17? Yes. Should you? Bean Throwing Day, more properly known as
Setsubun, is observed on February 3rd in Japan. It’s part of ushering in spring and getting
rid of bad spirits — and to do so, revelers pelt a senior member of their family with
roasted soybeans. Really! A senior male member of the family will sometimes dress
up as a demon to make the meaning behind the ritual more tangible. The beans are said to
bring good luck and drive out evil. Plus, have you ever tried throwing beans at someone?
It’s a blast. On a larger scale, Setsubun has become a very commercial affair, including
sponsored, televised events complete with appearances by celebrity sumo wrestlers.
If you visit Lopburi, Thailand, on the last Sunday in November, prepare to do a lot of
monkeying around: That’s when Lopburi celebrates the Monkey Buffet to honor the thousands of
macaques that live in the area and are thought to bring good luck.Locals prepare artful pyramids
of watermelon, durian, pineapple and more for the monkeys to enjoy—up to two tons'
worth! Fun fact: according to a 2007 report in the American Journal of Primatology, “Long-tailed
macaques in Lopburi, Thailand, use human hair as if it were dental floss.”
And finally, the German version of Father’s Day, Vatertag or Männertag (Man’s Day),
isn’t odd in theory — after all, dads deserve their due. But instead of going out
to eat at a terrible chain restaurant and giving their dads something that will disappear
into the closet for all eternity, Germans celebrate by giving them a day out. Männertag
could include a pub tour, a group bike ride accompanied by a beer wagon, or a raucous
day in a beer hall. All way better than another tie, for sure.
Our next episode is about weird old clubs
and organizations. If you know of an obscure group, league, or association, leave it in
the comments for your chance to be featured in that video! It’ll be up on January 15th-
be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss it. We’ll see you then!