It wasn’t so long ago that we had just a few dates on our calendars that were special secular celebrations. Days like Mother’s and Father’s Day, were added to the calendar in the early 1900’s and just 100 years later, we have just about every holiday celebrating everything and anything you can imagine.
It wasn’t until around the year 2000, when the internet and websites started taking off, that these daily fun and awareness holidays started to gain traction. The earliest holiday websites were sites like TimeandDate.com that started listing official holidays around the world. Then there were sites like HolidaySmart.com who started in 1999, and was the first site I know of to start posting daily fun holidays like “Talk Like a Pirate Day”. Another site that started in 1999 was BrownieLocks.com who created the site for kids and educators. HolidayInsights.com came along in 2000, and after that, many more sites started coming online. Most of the daily holidays were announced in Chase’s Calendar of Events prior to the year 2000.
Then, it wasn’t until social media started making people famous that websites started popping up with food and fun holidays for promotional purposes. When someone posted a picture with a puppy on Puppy Day, the likes were increased and thus, daily holidays become a crazy trend!
Then came these “National” holiday sites, who, in my opinion ruined the fun of daily holidays by putting the word “National” in front of every one of them! After all, we don’t call Mother’s Day “National Mother’s Day!” But that’s another blog post. Read my rant about the word National becoming a trend here.
These daily fun, inspirational, awareness, crazy, wacky, foodie and brand oriented holidays started popping up like crazy. I mean, it makes sense considering we all know that many original holidays in our secular world were created and promoted by Hallmark and company brands trying to cash in on the trend and sell their products. So the fact that businesses, brands, influencers and others started jumping on the holiday trend, is not surprising.
Where did these Daily Holidays come from?
So the question of where these holidays originated is clearly, all over the place! Prior to the internet, businesses, brands, and even Presidential proclamations, would announce a celebration day, typically for a food. Back then, it was typically just intended to be celebrated or commemorated that one year, like an anniversary or just to acknowledge something. But thanks to the internet, social media, and the popularity of these days, they quickly became an annual celebration. Days like 7-11 Slurpee Day, Donut Day, National Ice Cream Day, are all examples of individual holidays that grew into an annual trend.
7-11 Day started in 2002 to celebrate the brands anniversary and quickly caught on and became an annual trend. Donut Day was started by the Salvation Army during the Great Depression to raise money and honor the female volunteers who brought comforting foods, like donuts, to soldiers and became a commemorative event. National Ice Cream Day was proclammated by President Reagan in 1984 to commemorate the treat that year and has not been proclammated annually by any President yet remains an annual holiday.
It didn’t take long for marketing departments to pick up on the trend of increased exposure for a brand when announcing and celebrating these commemorative days. And it didn’t take long for others to capitalize on the increased likes when posting about a fun daily holiday. And so the craze began!
People started creating their own holidays, most were created by holiday websites, entertainers, health organizations, brands and others wanting to promote their ideas and their stuff.
Early websites jumped on the trend by adding additional days. Patti Jewel, founder of HolidaySmart.com started adding some fun days such as Chocolate Cake Day and Cheesecake Day in the early 2000’s. She also added any holidays that her followers, organizations and brands suggested for the calendar adding 100’s of holidays, many of which are now commonly celebrated. Foodimentary founder took the trend to social media years later and when there wasn’t enough to post about, he created a new day. Then came the “National” guy, who capitalized on the word “National” and started accepting submission (and payment) to create a holiday for a brand or person and called it “official”.
Now there are 100’s of holiday websites and promoters using these fun and awareness holidays and millions of social posts using them for fun, fame and fortune!
Will it ever stop?
Probably not! Daily holidays have become a trend that people love or hate, but either way, people are talking about them and in marketing and media, that’s always a good thing.
With more holiday sites popping up online everyday, and more people creating holidays everyday, the trend only seems to be growing.
There are so many things to celebrate and so many things still left off the calendar!
Anyone can literally create any holiday
Creating a day and posting on your social media may not make it catch on. Maybe it will just be your personal family and friends holiday. If you want it to catch on and be a nationally or globally recognized holiday, you have to promote it.
There are 100’s of holiday websites you can send you holiday to. Most do not simply add suggested holidays without good meanings. For example, if you want to promote a personal anniversary or birthday, it probably will not be picked up unless you name it something fun that everyone will want to celebrate. If you want to promote your sons birthday and submit “Dan’s Day”, it will be deleted before it is even read. However, if Dan is an advocate for owls and you want to start “Save the Owl Day” on Dan’s birthday, that might just catch on.
HolidaySmart founder Patti Jewel loves promoting inspirational type holidays rather than just the name of a person. For example, Flute and Piccolo Day inspired by Sir James Galway, Irish Flutest, and celebrated on his birthday. The Holiday Visionary Board is adding new inspiration holidays every year and takes submissions. And note, there is no fee involved. You do not have to pay to get listed on HolidaySmart.com and you can submit any holidays you create. And if you ask, HolidaySmart will send you a FREE “official” declaration certificate of the day.
Foodimentary is one site that seems to only add their own days. They do not have a complete list these days of food holidays because they are only listing the few chosen ones they decided to add.
National Day Calendar says they are continuing to post new days for businesses and organizations (but note, it will cost you for that “official” certificate). Chases Calendar of Events, a book publication, takes submissions for holidays at no charge to you. Then there are the others such as Holidays-and-observances, Holiday Insights, and Brownie Locks, who seem to add holidays based on “legitimacy”. And there are all those new holiday websites that will add anything, anything at all, in order to try to be the “biggest” holiday website.
None of these companies or people have the authority on creating new holidays, they just do it. And people like you and me can create a day too. So put on your creator hat and create your own holiday!
I’m thinking we should celebrate Wow Really Day! I just haven’t chosen a date!