National Days are days given meaning, often meant to bring awareness or remind people about a topic. Often, companies will have promotions for these days. For example, 7-Eleven celebrates National 7-Eleven on July 11, by giving out a small slushy to customers for free.
A variety of national days exist. Days that many don’t celebrate, days that people only know about through random Facebook groups, days that raise the question: why do these exist?
Short answer: they are made up. All of them. The National Day Calendar gets its days from people, companies, or organizations who submit an application.
This differs from federal holidays, such as Veterans Day, Juneteenth, and Thanksgiving, which have to be voted on in Congress.
There are so many days because anyone can apply. Companies and organizations that apply pay money for the applications, says the Emerging Prairie and Marketplace.org, making it profitable to have as many national days, weeks, and months as possible.
There are currently over 1,500 of these days, weeks, and months, according to the National Day Calendar. Brendan Clarey, a writer for USA Today noted its peculiarity.
“I don’t know about you, but I have a hard enough time keeping track of birthdays, anniversaries, and my wife’s due date, let alone almost 1,500 different days, weeks, and months invented by strangers on the internet or concocted by corporations to hock their products,” Clarey wrote in the article.
Some of these days include National Answer the Phone like Buddy the Elf Day on Dec. 18, International Talk like a Pirate Day on Sept. 19, National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day on Nov. 7, and National Joe Day on March 27.
March 27 is also freshman Gage Martinez’s birthday. When he learned about what his birthday is associated with, he said it was cool.
“[I’m] quite excited that I have National Joe Day,” Martinez said.
Similarly, freshman Dylan Gibboney’s birthday is April 26, which is also Intellectual Property Day.
“That’s really fitting,” Gibboney joked. “I really like copyright.”
