You Tell Me: If You Could Designate a New Holiday, What Would It Celebrate and Why?National Sleep-In Day on October 26. National Coffee Milkshake Day on July 26. National Clean Off Your Desk Day on January 14. Thank a Mailman Day on February 4. The greeting card companies, with the help of other corporations and charities, churches and other non-profits, seem to have created a holiday for every cause, career, situation and thing under the sun. For that matter, there is even a National Space Day – and it’s October 22, as dedicated by U.S President Herbert Hoover in 1931 – so make that everything under and beyond the sun.
Subtract the commercial intent behind some of these “holidays,” and it is actually wonderful that not a single calendar date can go by without something – actually for any given day, many things – being celebrated… Holding hands (Aug. 9). Floral design (Feb. 28). Souls (Nov. 2). Garlic (April 19). Working women (March 8). The PTA (Feb. 17). Organizing your home (Jan. 7) Crab stuffed flounder (Feb. 18). Cable cars (Jan. 17). Iguana awareness (Sept. 6). We need more celebrating of the universe and every marvelous thing within it. Which brings me to you. If I had just a single conversation with you, I absolutely know I’d find you fascinating. Anyone with an open heart and asking you the right questions would find you fascinating. That’s because you, like me and everyone else, have your life stories that are worth sharing. You have unique challenges that you’ve already overcome, those you are now facing, and remarkable insights to share emanating from your challenges. And born of your stories and your challenges, you also have those things that you hold dear, and those things that you hold sacred. Which brings me back to holidays and a simple, enjoyable and self-illuminating experience I hope you will immerse yourself in right now… If you could designate your own holiday – and please do, see the bottom of this page -- what would that holiday celebrate? Consider what you cherish that doesn’t get the attention you feel it deserves – that which you feel should be recognized and celebrated more -- and perhaps go with that. Or go with whatever your heart tells you to go with. What would you name your holiday? In the way that chocolate and love notes are exchanged on Valentine’s Day and turkey is consumed at Thanksgiving, what actions would you want people to take to honor and reflect your holiday’s theme? Why? In the way that green equals St. Patrick’s Day and orange and black equals Halloween, are there certain colors you’d want to associate with your holiday? Why? Specific food and drink you’d want consumed on the day? Any existing songs, films, poems or the like that would be a good fit for your holiday? Famous personalities that come to mind who best embody the spirit of it? Particular stuff we’d all stick up in our windows and inside and outside of our house to celebrate it? From my end, there are many holidays I’d like to see to honor and celebrate things that don’t get the recognition they deserve. I’d love to see a Be Nice to Your Ex Day, whereby even the bitterest of divorcees and other ex-loves send one another cards expressing gratitude for the positive things they know about one another, and the positive things they once shared. I know, this one is really far-fetched… but it would make for much more upbeat energy floating throughout the world. Though it would crumble economies if it really caught on, I believe we really need a Buy Absolutely Nothing Day, where – you guessed it – people purchase absolutely nothing on that day. No mattresses, no Starbucks, no toilet paper, no stocks, no lawn fertilizer, no nothing. The day would honor our existence as far more than material beings, and we’d all go nude to further symbolize that. Okay, forget the nude part. I’d really love to see a Pay Everyone a Compliment Day, for reasons you can read about in How a Simple “X” Written on Your Hand Can Profoundly Change Lives... Including Your Own. And I’d also love to see a "Man, I Love Olives!" Day, simply because I love olives. So many other foods have their own day (even garbanzo beans -- October 21!) so why not olives? Everyone would wear black and green, of course. I could go on (and on), as there are so many things that don’t get the recognition and attention they deserve, but most of all I’d love to see an International You-Call-the-Holiday Day. We all hold so much inside that we adore and respect, that we really should share with the world to brighten it, so on this particular day, everyone would celebrate the holiday of their own invention. And the cacophony of all the different things being celebrated by so many different people would just enhance the joy. I’d love to see it, and since nothing is stopping me from seeing it, I hereby designate January 30 – which happens to be my birthday, a privilege holiday designators get, though I will be competing with National Yodel for Your Neighbors Day (really) – as International You-Call-the-Holiday Day. So right now I am asking you … if this sounds the least bit worthwhile, if you believe we each and all need to celebrate what we hold near and dear more to make the world a brighter place, or even if you just want another excuse for fun … to help by doing the following:
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