Celebrate The Day

~ beetleypete

Do you remember back when we only had a few ‘Days’? There was Christmas Day of course, followed by Boxing Day, all after the sombre mood of Armistice Day, in November. My own Birthday, always a cause for celebration, then Mother’s Day, followed by Father’s Day. Good Friday qualified as a Day, as did Easter Monday, and Bank Holiday Monday, in August. That was about it at the time.

Then I noticed that they were trying to sneak in ‘Grandparents’ Day’, from America. I avoided that one, as after all, enough was enough. But it was only the start of an avalanche of ‘Days’. As I got older, I read about International Women’s Day, and May Day, to celebrate workers around the world. I thought, ‘OK, that’s enough.’ I was wrong. The Internet arrived.

There was an explosion of ‘Days’, accelerated by the world-wide web. Most of these were actually good ideas, and raised money for charity. Aids Awareness Day, Mental Health Day, Alzheimer’s Day, and so on. You get the idea. Support Our Troops Day, (once we started to become involved in foreign conflicts once again) was one of many more that were instigated to embrace good causes.

But then it got out of hand. Circulated via social media, we soon had such things as ‘Stroke Your Pet Day’, (who doesn’t stroke their pet?) ‘Adopt A Hedgehog Day’, ‘Throw a Sickie Day’, ‘Cuddle A Vagrant Day’, and many more too numerous to mention. Once I started blogging, I noticed a trend towards sub-division of days. ‘Mental Health Awareness Day’ was no longer enough. That had to be split into ‘Bipolar Day’, ‘ADHD Day’, ‘Manic Depression Day’, and on and on. Animal days followed suit, with ‘Save A Tiger Day’, ‘Adopt A Panda Day’, and as many as you can possibly imagine.

Then came Climate Change, and Recycling. Soon, I was inundated with yet more days. ‘Save The Icecaps Day’, ‘Polar Bear Day’, ‘Conserve Your Local Wetland Day’ and possibly hundreds more. ‘Ride Your Bike To Work Day’, ‘Do Fifty Press-ups Day’, my head was spinning. If I thought that was it, I was sadly mistaken. Think of a day, any day you like, and it is taken by something. It will be ‘—–Day’, be certain of that. ‘Poetry Day’, ‘Literature Day’, ‘Singing Day’, and ‘Feed Someone Day’. They have all been thought of. Believe me, there is nothing left. Days have had to be claimed by more than one of those ‘—– Day’, and they are now competing for attention like pups in a box. (Oh, ‘Adopt A Puppy Day’, I almost forgot.)

When the days were overrun, they migrated into months. ‘World Literacy Month’, ‘World Water Aid Month’, ‘Bake A Cake Month’, and ‘Learn A New Skill Month’. Think of anything, and it has a month, believe me. There are even years of this stuff. ‘City of Culture for —-‘ (year). Good luck with trying to think up 365 things to give the impression that your city is remotely cultural. Not only that, you will be competing with 365 (or 366 in a leap year) other things that the ‘world’ is celebrating, alongside many months of ‘this and that’ going on all around your cultural ‘hub’.

When will enough ever be enough, I wonder?

My own non-scientific research has discovered that each year is already ‘full’. There are no days left, and these ‘events’ are now sharing days, marching on relentlessly, driven by Facebook, Twitter, and Bloggers. Not only are there far too many, some of them trite in the extreme, but there is just no space left for ‘National Cut Your Pet’s Toenails Day’, or ‘National Stroke A Rabbit Day’. I am worn out, ‘Dayed’ out, and bewildered by the choices on offer.

Something’s got to give, or we are going to need a lot more days.

62 thoughts on “Celebrate The Day”

  2. Maybe it’ll start getting split down into hours of a day to fit them all in. Pirate hour 8 til 9, Soup hour 12 til 1 :0). As you say. the worry s that important ones, like Mental Health will get swallowed up surrounded by nonsense days.

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  3. I’m with you on the subject of ‘Days’ Pete. Given that so much of the internet today is run by extremely rich Spotty Herberts, how long will it be before we’re asked to celebrate them I wonder? 🙂

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  5. Hehe, I had a good laugh at this Pete. We don’t celebrate all those Days here. We have around 12 official holidays in a year and more additional ones which are movable in the calendar.

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  6. Haha I don’t really pay any attention to it. My best friend does things at work Pirates Day. It’s fun. Some of them raise money for charities. But most of us have other things on our minds.

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  7. Heehee… and you didn’t even mention ‘take your daughter to work day’. I’m sure though that we didn’t celebrate Father’s Day here until fairly recently, the 1970s perhaps? Another imported Americanism.

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    1. Hope you had a nice holiday, Jude.
      I remember my Mum buying me some shaving soap to wrap up for my Dad on Father’s Day, so it must have been the mid-1960s. I didn’t speak to him after 1975, by which time I was almost 24, so it wasn’t the 70s for me.
      Best wishes, Pete. x

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  8. Ha ha, Pete. This is the most amusing post I have read for ages. You are so right – the world has exploded into a million days, there are often more than one on a single day – it is completely crazy and you wrote this in such a funny way.

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    1. Many thanks, Robbie. I am very pleased that you got the humour. The sad thing is that I am happy to support the ‘real’ Days. But they have become lost in the mindless rubbish. Have people really descended so low? It appears that they have. No hope left…
      Best wishes as always, Pete. x

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    1. Thanks, Jennie. I really espouse the ‘Real Days’, but all this Facebook-inspired nonsense just makes me angry. I have genuine concerns that good causes will lose out to all this rubbish.
      Despite my humourous approach to this post, I take it quite seriously.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  12. Well I’m a day late on this (maybe I’ll invent a national be a day late day) but today (3rd May) is National Chocolate Custard day, National Lumpy rug day (I kid you not) and NAtional Two Different Coloured Shoes day, amongst others equally silly!

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  16. I can’t keep up, Pete. And eventually when everything has a day, no day means anything at all. Oh well… They’ll have to make them only every so many years to have space for everything…

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    1. That got me looking up ‘Peter Day’. I couldn’t find one! 😦
      However, I did discover that there is a National Doughnut Day. It is the 2nd of June, so less than a month to go before I can fill my face with those!
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  18. Ok. Was that a joke about splitting Mental Health Day into Bipolar Day? If not, it is pretty funny anyway. The thing I can’t keep track of are all the different colored ribbons and bracelets.

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    1. Not that I think Mental Health is something to laugh at, Elizabeth, but I couldn’t resist that one. Apologies to anyone who found it unacceptable, as It’s a serious issue. But these ‘Days’ are just getting too much.
      Best wishes, Pete.

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  20. Marilyn Monroe, who’s out back giggling in the pool, told me that she agrees with you. “Something’s got to give!” However, she would like to propose Marilyn Monroe Day. I suggested June 1 (the day she was born), but she shook her head no, saying she doesn’t mind that June 1 coincides with National Hazelnut Cake Day and World Milk Day, but she refuses to share it with Oscar the Grouch. I then suggested August 5 (the day she was found dead). It coincides with National Oyster Day, which she liked very much, but she dismissed it when I told her it was also National Underwear Day. Why would she celebrate underwear when she won’t even wear a bathing suit in the pool?

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  21. This is so true and sadly you’ve just enlightened me to so many more I didn’t know were days.. What happened to Monday -Sunday? I just want peaceful days.. Great Blog my good friend.. Let’s have Beetleypete Day! Now that’s a day I’d even drink a glass of wine on to celebrate it with you and your lovely wife underneath that grand tree you have in the front yard… with Ollie of course… wink.. Take care, Laura

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  23. Then there is the “day” for some obscure disease that kills 4 people a year…..I agree some things need to be observed….but not every damn thing someone can think of…..I don’t want to take my boss to lunch day…or national sack day where married men get to play with their plums once a year….I agree enough is enough….chuq

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