Each month we will give you a list of special happenings in the UK, USA, and other English-Speaking countries, some serious, others not so much!
1: New Year’s Day
It is a federal holiday in the UK, USA, and all English-speaking countries. Schools and most businesses are not open, and families and friends often have meals together. In the UK, certain foods are eaten for good luck: pork and black eyed-peas. In the US, families and friends gather for lunch and to watch college football games. Another very popular custom is to make resolutions—promises to improve oneself during the new year. Fun facts: One million people gather at New York City’s Times Square—about 45% of them make a New Year’s resolution, which half give up on before the month ends! Typical resolutions are to lose weight, save money, learn a new skill, quit smoking or drinking, and improve work-life balance.
New Year’s Day taditions include polar bear plunges, going for a walk with an empty suitcase, hanging an onion on your front door, banging pots and pans, writing a wish on a paper and then burning it, and many more. But, by no means sweep or clean your house, or do the laundry or take out the trash—these will all bring bad luck! Finally, let’s not forget that half the world’s population celebrates New Year’s Day on another date, especially in East Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East.
Ondrejk, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
2: National Introvert Day
It is dedicated to those individuals who do best in relaxed environments and gain energy from solitude and quiet places. Introverts value limited social interactions and find comfort in their own company. Of course, no celebrations are planned today! This global observance merely serves as a reminder that introversion is not a failing but a strength, as introverts simply prefer deep connections, think before speaking, and can be highly observant and thoughtful. Here are a few jokes that maybe only we introverts can fully appreciate:
- How can you tell when an introvert likes you? They are looking at your shoes instead of their own.
- How do you make an introvert happy?
- Happiness is successfully closing the elevator door before anyone else can get in.
- How many introverts does it take to change a lightbulb? What’s wrong with sitting in the dark?
- Two introverts walk into a room. One leaves.
- Introvert nightmare: wait for just the right moment to say something, and someone interrupts you.
- I wish my neighbors weren’t so friendly.
- The next time a stranger speaks to you when you’re alone, just look at them shocked and whisper, “You can see me?”
- Many introverts didn’t realize how anti-social they were until the Pandemic struck and their lives didn’t change much.
Larm Rmah larm, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
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4: National Trivia Day
It is a holiday about general knowledge, and those people who can store the most obscure, irrelevant, but still interesting facts and quotes in their brains. It was founded in 1980 by the company that produced the family-favorite Trivial Pursuit board game. Over 100 million copies of the game have been sold in 26 countries in over 17 different languages. A few examples of trivia:
- Women blink almost twice as often as men.
- Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ears 700 times.
- About 42,000 tennis balls are used at each Wimbledon Championship.
- Scotland’s national animal is the unicorn.
- You can’t hum with your nose plugged. Try it!
- You could draw a line 55 kilometers long using the lead of a single pencil.
- The expiration date on water bottles is for the bottle, not the water.
- Vicent van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime. Anna Boch, the sister of a friend, paid the equivalent of16€ for The Red Vineyard, now in the Pushkin museum in Moscow.
JIP, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
9: Word Nerd Day
It celebrates people that love words. Who reads the dictionary or scans a thesaurus for entertainment? A Word Nerd! These people love words, their meanings and their etymology: the study, history, and development of words. Word Nerds excel at crossword puzzles, Wordle, anagrams*, pangrams*, palindromes*, and other word games. Word Nerds three favorite holidays? National Thesaurus, Librarian, and Dictionary Days. Word Nerds often have an annoying side: correcting other people’s spelling, usage, punctuation, and grammar—even on social media! BTW, just so you know, there’s a nerdy expression for this: “grammar pedantry.” But now there’s a solution: “Bad English,” a 255 page take down of linguistic snobbery, with come backs for all annoying word nerdery.
*An anagram: “silent” and “listen” words or phrase made by rearranging the letters of another word or phrase, using all the letters only once!
*A pangram: “The five boxing wizards jump quickly.” Uses all the letters in the alphabet!
*A palindrome: “racecar” / “kayak” / “never odd or even” the same read forward or backward!
Pope, Amy Elizabeth, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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10: Peculiar People Day
It celebrates people who are a little different than others, a bit out of the ordinary, eccentric. What a boring world it would be without these people who have unique ideas, behaviors, or styles. Imagine life without offbeat humors, quirks, and different perspectives. On “Peculiar People Day,” these non-conformists should be understood and honored. It is a day to celebrate differences, not look away from or down on others who are different: a day to celebrate all the originality in the world.
Note: Come on, it’s only one day. Tomorrow, you can go back to being a judgmental scold!
© Vyacheslav Argenberg / https://www.vascoplanet.com/, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Common
12: Clean Off Your Desk Day
It was made “to provide one day early each year for every desk worker to see the top of the desk and prepare for the following year’s paperwork.” An AI Overview claims, “a messy desk can signal creativity, high engagement, or being overwhelmed, but it can also be perceived negatively as disorganization, laziness, or lack of interest.” Many people with a messy desk claim it’s “organized chaos,” insisting they know exactly where everything is, their clutter a system that works for them. Others will admit to disorganization, poor time management, and laziness. Where do you stand? Or, is your desk perfectly organized, signaling “a disciplined and conventional person who follows rules and finishes tasks.” How boring.
Mack Male from Edmonton, AB, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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20: Rid the World of Fad Diets and Gimmicks Day
It takes place on the Tuesday of “Healthy Weight Week,” a week-long celebration focused on maintaining a healthy diet, exercise routine, and feeling good. This is a day for education and caution: “diet quackery runs the gamut from plans and supplements that contain dangerous, untested and potent drugs to the merely ridiculous.” A balanced diet combined with exercise is the best way to lose weight. It’s simple: eat fewer calories than are required to maintain your weight (caloric deficient); focus on whole foods, proteins, fruits, and vegetables (get rid of sugar and processed foods); and find some activity you like doing that involves movement: swimming, walking, running, gardening, etc. The secret? Stay with it. Don’t give up. Slow and steady wins the race. Not so Fun Facts:
- Americans spend up to $100 billion on weight loss and dieting each year, including on diet products, programs, gym memberships, medications, and surgeries.
- According to the FDA, more than 1 million Americans die each year from diet-related diseases, which include type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and certain cancers.
- Overall, obesity and poor diet contribute to an estimated $1.1 trillion annually lost on healthcare, medical bills, lost productivity, absenteeism, and food insecurity. Note: only 19 countries have a larger GDP than that!
- 40-42% of US adults are obese; about 31% are considered overweight. In Europe, those numbers are 17% obese and 51% overweight.
Tibor Végh, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
20: Penguin Awareness Day
It’s observed every year on this date to celebrate the charming birds that bring so much joy and love to the animal kingdom with their unique looks and way of life. Fun Facts:
- Penguins have a special gland behind their eyes that allows them to drink and filter seawater, keeping the salt from their bloodstream.
- Gentoo penguins can swim underwater at 35.4 kph—that’s just a little slower than Usain Bolt on land (37.6kph average in breaking 100-meter world record). They can also hold their breath underwater for 7 minutes. Try that, Usain!
- There are 19 species of penguins, and they all live exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere.
- A group of penguins in the water is called a “raft;” whereas, on land, a group is called a “waddle.” Other collective nouns include rookery, colony, and huddle.
- Once a year, penguins have what’s called a “catastrophic molt,” which means they lose all their feathers at once, and must stay on land for 2-3 weeks until the new ones grow in!
Jason Auch, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
24: National Peanut Butter Day
It’s celebrated on this day, which is dedicated to the creamy, crunchy and versatile condiment. Whether you like it on a toast, in your sandwich, or even as a part of a salad dressing or noodle sauce, peanut butter has made its place in pantries and hearts across America and beyond. That said, most Europeans generally hate it or refuse to even try it: the average European eats less than one tablespoon per year! Or, perhaps, you just have archibutyrophobia, a real medical condition for people who have a fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of their mouth! More Fun Facts:
- A 12-ounce jar of peanut butter requires around 540 peanuts and real peanuts are required by law to make up 90% or more of the product.
- The average American child will eat 1,500 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches before finishing high school! It is the go-to lunchtime meal in many families, with 94% of US households having a jar in their kitchen cupboard.
- Georgia, Florida, and Alabama grow 60% of the peanuts in the US—half of which are used for making peanut butter. The average peanut farm is around 200 acres.
- About 1.3 percent of Americans are allergic to peanuts.
- Peanut butter and banana sandwiches were the favorites of former US President Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley. The King often liked his fried!
Matias Garabedian from Montreal, Canada, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Common
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25: Burns Night
It’s a celebration across the UK of the life and works of Scottish poet Robert Burns. The celebration commemorates his birth date and usually involves a ‘Burns Supper’ which includes haggis (below—that’s not a turd!), bagpipes, and dancing. It is not, however, a public holiday and so banks, businesses, and schools will remain open across Scotland and the rest of the UK. And Burns the family man? He was the father of 12 children, nine with his wife Jean Armour, and three more children with three different of his domestic household servants. Poetic licentiousness?
UKinUSA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
28: National LEGO Day
It’s observed every year to honor the iconic little bricks that spark creativity and have helped in developing problem-solving skills for generations. It honors the date in 1958 when the son of LEGO’s founder, Godtfred Kirk Christiansen, patented the modern LEGO brick design. These simple, interlocking plastic bricks revolutionized the toy industry, laying the foundation for the global success of LEGO. Fun Facts: There are many, but let’s try these three: 1) the world’s tallest LEGO tower is 28.7m high, made from 465,000 bricks! 2) During the Christmas season almost 28 LEGO sets are sold worldwide each second. 3) Laid end to end, the number of LEGO bricks sold in a year would reach more than five times round the world.
Not without controversy, Lego has been criticized for its nonbiodegradable product, which breaks down into highly polluting microplastics; a concentration camp theme set, replete with human skeletons (what were these people thinking?); sexist and gender insensitive pieces; battles with Greenpeace; and have had their sets banned in various countries.
Father of Rathfelder, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Common
31: Hug an Economist Day
It’s observed this Saturday, January 31st. It celebrates economists for their insights and encourages others to learn about the so-called “dismal science,” an expression coined by the Scottish essayist Thomas Carlye in 1849. Economists study decision-making, research, and data to understand behavior and societal trends from personal finance to global policy—with an incredible track record for being wrong. Here are few economist jokes:
- Economic forecasting is like driving a car blindfolded and getting instruction from a person looking out the rear window.
- An economist will know tomorrow why the things she or he predicted yesterday didn’t happen.
- Economists have predicted six of the last two recessions.
- Why was astrology invented? So economics would seem like an accurate science.
- Economist Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman once said: “If you think you understand what I said, you must have misunderstood my meaning.”
- Economic forecasters assume everything, except responsibility.
- There are two classes of forecasters: those who don’t know and those who don’t know they don’t know (J.K. Galbraith).
Debangana.mukherjee, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
