It's that time of year when you start to think about the upcoming holidays and their various unique attributes and implications. If you are having people over, what do you make for a festive meal? For that matter, who are the special people with whom you want to spend the holiday? Beyond the big dinner, what gifts do you need to buy, music do you need to cue up, decorations do you need to put up? I mean, World Egg Day comes but once a year and you want to be ready.
World Egg Day?
Yup. Established in Vienna in 1996, it was created to celebrate the power of the egg on the second Friday in October each year. Unless you are anti-egg for reasons of health or philosophy, it's hard to argue about them as a valuable food source. High in protein, loaded with nutrients, low in calories, they have been described by some as the perfect food. And while the yolk is a significant source of cholesterol, those who have issues can consume the whites to get big and strong.
If all that sounds like a marketing pitch, well, it is. World Egg Day wasn't instituted by a religion or nation state or a groundswell movement championing chickens and all they do for mankind, but by the International Egg Commission. Established in 1964, the IEG is a membership organization dedicated to the global egg industry, focusing on the latest developments in production, nutrition and marketing. And World Egg Day is their creation, because they felt that mankind was not being served by not having a day to celebrate Egg McMuffins and their brethren.
WED (as no one calls it except the IEG) joins a number of other dubious "holidays," each one created not by popular demand, but by groups or individuals looking to champion some particular cause or product. Online underwear retailer Freshpair started National Underwear Day in 2003, and on August 5th for the past 19 years have encouraged all to "Embrace Your Body Image." Since 2010 American Express has encouraged consumers on the Saturday after Thanksgiving with Small Business Saturday to shop their local merchants. In 2006, Internal House of Pancakes started IHOP National Pancake Day. While it generally corresponds with the beginning of Lent, it moves around a bit, but it's their holiday so I guess they can do what they want. And July 11th each year? Why it's National 7-Eleven Day, of course.
Does anyone pay attention to these holidays? Other than Jack-in-the-Box (who invented it in 2002), does anyone really observe National Drive-Thru Day (July 24)? About the only people who "celebrate" these occasions are consumers who want the goods being offered as part of the celebration. On IHOP National Pancake Day you can get a free shortstack of the restaurant's signature item, while Boston Market has a coupon for a free side on National Rotisserie Chicken Day (June 2), and you can score a free Slurpee on National 7-Eleven Day. This year's inaugural National Cinema Day on September 3 offered movie goers $3 tickets, which helped to push Labor Day release "Top Gun: Maverick" to become the fifth highest grossing picture of all time.
It makes for a crowded calendar and only getting more crowded. However, there is just so much real estate to be had. In 2010 the World Plumbing Council established World Plumbing Day annually on March 11 to "raise awareness of the vital role plumbers play in our daily lives." But they didn't look at their Daytimers. That's also Johnny Appleseed Day, celebrating John Chapman, an American settler who championed the fruit. Same problem with October 29th, which is both World Cat Day and National Oatmeal Day. And while the American Bar Association might have made May 1 National Law Day, which was recognized by President Dwight Eisenhower and formalized with a joint resolution by Congress, the day is a veritable pile up with Global Love Day, National Purebred Dog Day, School Principal's Day and more than a dozen others claiming it as their own.
Wacky stuff, to be sure. But if the underlying cause is important to you, by all means celebrate with friends and family. For that reason, I am personally looking forward to October 20th. Yes, it is our 38th wedding anniversary, but it's also National Brandied Fruit Day. Cherries for all!
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Marc Wollin of Bedford celebrates anything that requires dessert. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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