I recently read on a holiday website that the word National is ok to add to daily fun holidays because it is what the creator wanted. But that is not true in most cases. The majority of “National” daily fun holidays, did not start out with the word National, yet all of the holiday websites and media articles are adding that because it is a trendy thing to do.
This website is Holiday Insights, who happens to be one of the better, more recommended websites. However, in this article about National Days, it states that when speaking of daily fun holidays, we shouldn’t remove the word National because it diminishes what the creator wanted. Then I ask, why does that same website add the word National to holidays that were not intending that pre-word? That is not respecting the creator, it’s only following the trend to get more clicks. Don’t get me wrong, I respect this website and pretty much everything they have to say in this article, except that it is a bit hypocritical to those not wanting the word National. The article states that “History mustn’t be altered. If we arbitrarily change a title, what’s next?” Yet clearly the website adds the word National to holidays that it once had listed without that preamble. That is kind of changing history!
The Initiator of “National” wording
And I am annoyed that one website was instrumental in this trend and now everyone thinks every fun holiday has to have the word National in it’s title.
I have been writing about these daily fun holidays for over 20 years, and the word National did not become a thing until after 2013 when National Day Calendar decided to capitalize on these types of holidays. Adding the word National makes them seem more official and draws in clients who are willing to pay to have a “National” Holiday promoted in their name. National Day Calendar started charging people $2,000 – $4,000 to “proclaim” a holiday and called it official with a certificate. Yep, the creator got a certificate for their thousands of dollars by a company that is not any more official than the person themselves.
But there is nothing official about any of the holidays they created. Anyone can create a holiday and promote it. And adding the word National only seems to diminish the word when over 1,000 holidays use that preface.
Now when you go to their website, every single holiday has the word National in front of it, even the ones that were not intended to and were not proclamated by them.
Then another website, National Today, jumped on the trend. Started by a marketing agency who saw dollar signs in daily holidays. As a marketing company, they did everything right to gain mass recognition. Both of these sites use the word “National” as promotional propaganda to make the holidays seem more official.
When every holiday has the word National, the word becomes meaningless and is what I believe is making people hate these holidays. National this day and National that day, makes the word National quite annoying. And it shouldn’t be.
These are NOT National Holidays!
They are not official holidays. Only holidays proclamated by a nation are real National holidays. We have never used the word National in the past for fun and awareness holidays. We don’t call it National Mother’s Day or National Valentines Day.
Sometimes, “national days” are created via presidential proclamation or a resolution in the House or Senate. On July 9, 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5119 declaring National Ice Cream Day, praising it as a “nutritious and wholesome food.” Other Reagan proclamations included National Frozen Food Day, also in 1984, and Catfish Day on June 25, 1987.
So it was these proclamations that really started the “National” wording trend. But these were days that the President signed off on, not just a brand, website or person.
It is confusing to people in other countries trying to learn about our holidays. Sites such as Time and Date, who has been the authority in holidays around the world since the early 2000’s, are confused by these days. They are adding some to their US calendar, while other more worthy days are not included.
Most people across the globe know that the US is the Queen of daily fun holidays and observances. The trend to celebrate and randomly create these days became very prominent over the past 15 years and the preface “National” has taken over. National Day Calendar offers an official Registrar to create your own holiday with National in the title. But it is not an official holiday and their certificate doesn’t make it so. Anyone can create a holiday, name it whatever they want, add it to any website, promote it everywhere, and gain recognition. In fact, most holiday websites will add and promote your newly created holiday for free.
Holiday Insights also explains in their fore-mentioned article that it’s ok to name the holidays with this title and that we should respect the creators name. But I don’t respect the name starting with National unless it is a country specific holiday or is proclamated by the government of a country.
I love these daily fun holidays and have been writing about them longer than most of these websites have existed. I love that anyone can create a holiday. What I don’t love is the websites that are in it for the money and using the word National to promote their own agendas.
My favorite sites for holidays are the ones that don’t try to use the propaganda or promote for purely monetization reasons. The two original websites that I started following 24 years ago when the internet was just getting started are:
And another newer passionate holiday owner that I like is: Holidays-and-observances.com. And I do respect HolidayInsights.com as an early holiday site even though they didn’t seem to put as much effort into it as the others.
These sites seem to be the ones that truly are passionate about sharing the information more than making money. But everyone needs some funding so I’d recommend clicking on these to support them and bookmark the days from these sites that are in it for the passion, not the money.