It’s Not Too Late to Make Plans for Pillow Fight Day
I was sad to discover that I have already missed Worldwide Quilting Day and Holi, the Color Festival, this year. I looked on the web for a master list of textile-related celebrations so I wouldn’t miss out on any more, but couldn’t find a list. So I created my own. I posted a summary on another page, complete with links to event planning pages if I was able to find them.
While looking, I discovered some new events too! These are mostly related to textiles, but I threw in a few others especially for members of my family who love them.
January 7 – Roc Day. Also known as St. Distaff’s Day, this is the day spinners traditionally returned to their tasks after Christmas.
January 15 – National Hat Day
Why does the smallest child have the largest hat?
February – Embroidery Month
French knots and daisy stitch
February 10 – National Umbrella Day
Can one carry a parasol on umbrella day?
February 15 – Make a Blanket Day – this is sponsored by Project Linus, to make blankets for kids in the hospital. The date changes from year to year.
February 27 – International Polar Bear Day
March – This is both National Craft Month and National Crochet Month.
My dad has crafted many wonderful things over the years. He made this case to display a family pocket watch.
Crocheted by my mom!
March 12 – Birthday of Isabella Beeton (1836), who wrote Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management, one of my favorite books to relax with.
March 15, 2014 – Worldwide Quilting Day, next year!
Worldwide Quilting Day
March 27 and 28 – Holi. This color festival sounds like so much fun. The dates change and I don’t know the dates for next year’s celebration.
April 6 – National Pillow Fight Day. This is sponsored by the Urban Playground Movement, which aims to get people interacting with each other instead of sitting around watching TV. The closest event to me is in Austin – who knows? I might go!
This pillow case is too pretty to have in a pillow fight.
April 23 – World Book Night. This is the second year for this in the US. Last year, 25,000 volunteers went out in their communities and gave away a half million books to people who are not normally readers. A panel picks 30 books to give away, the authors waive their royalties on those books, and the books are specially printed just for this event. I won’t be out giving away books, but I will stay up late reading!
Last full week of April – National Laundry and Linen Week. I searched in vain for a Cotton Day or Silk Week – I found this event to celebrate Linen – but it seems a little sad to me that the linen doesn’t rate a full observance on its own – it is inextricably tied to laundry.
Linen with cutwork
May 4 – Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you!
May 5 – National Alpaca Day in New Zealand.
May 7 – Lost Sock Memorial Day. The website states that some people actually hold a little memorial service for their orphan sock on this date. I would need a backhoe to bury all my odds and ends of socks.
It wouldn’t be possible to misplace these socks!
May 8 – National No-Socks Day. Now that you’ve gotten rid of your unmatched socks, I guess you give them up for summer!
May 15 – National Clean-Out-Your-Purse Day. If you are one of those people that collects handbags, I guess you will be busy!
May 25 – National Towel Day. This is not a pure day of textile celebration; it is really in remembrance of Douglas Adams, the author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Apparently towels are important in that series. I only read the first one, back before any of the others were even published. Maybe this should be my book choice on World Book Night so I can see what’s going on with the towels.
June – various weeks – National Dairy Goat Awareness Week. This one struck me funny, because it was actually a Presidential Proclamation last year. I don’t know if it will be repeated this year. This is the only animal that even got a proclamation! What about fiber goats? What about meat goats?? I am definitely not telling Leila about this.
“Did you know neither one of us was recognized by the White House?”
June 8 – 16 – Worldwide Knit in Public Day. Yes, they still call it a day, but they have extended it to a week, to allow more participation all over the world.
Baby booties knit by my grandmothers.
July 7 – Birthday of Joseph Marie Charles. You and I know him as Monsieur Jacquard, of Jacquard loom fame. I just found out that Charles is his real last name, and Jacquard was more of a nickname, to distinguish different branches of his huge family. Anyway, if it wasn’t for him, we might never have used punch card technology, and then where would the computer world be?
July 31 AND December 7 – National Cotton Candy Day. This is as close as we get to having a Cotton Day. When I searched for Cotton Day, I got over 33 million results for Cotton Candy Day instead. Since cotton candy has two days, maybe they can release one to cotton.
September – National Sewing Month
This dress from the 1800s was entirely hand sewn. I love these little cartridge pleats.
September 18 – Birthday of Mary E. Black, who wrote the monumental textbook, The Key to Weaving. I would have loved to put down the birthdays of many more weavers and textile artists, but Wikipedia has a dearth of entries about them!
Third Wednesday in September – National Backpack Awareness Day. It sounds kind of funny, but this day has a serious intent of making parents aware that heavy backpacks can cause back problems in young people.
Why does the smallest child have the biggest backpack?
September 28 & 29 – National Alpaca Farms Day, US and Canada. I know one of our local towns, Navasota, has an alpaca celebration every year.
October 1 – National Lace Day
Lace is so wonderful it deserves a week at least.
October 7 – 13 – National Spinning and Weaving Week, US (the dates change from year to year). I found that the UK had a National Spinning, Weaving, and Dyeing Week in May in 2012, but was not able to find any information for this year.
I didn’t spin it, but I did dye and weave it.
October 14 – 20 – Wool Week, UK. HRH the Prince of Wales started this organization (with a gorgeous logo) to boost the wool business – last year they ran sheep down the streets of London or something like that. This year the US is getting in on the fun too, but I’m not sure if the dates are the same here.
October 26 – National Bandanna Day, Australia. This is another fun day with a serious intent – its aim is to raise awareness about and support for teenagers who have cancer or who have been affected by cancer in their families.
October 27 – Hug a Sheep Day.
OK, this is actually an Angora goat kid, not a sheep – but the sentiment is there!
I looked for a Llama Day – last year there were six different dates listed as “National Llama Day” on people’s blogs, but I couldn’t find any for this year.
“The alpacas get a whole weekend!! Why don’t we get a day?”
And that’s it! No textile holidays in August, November, or December! Did I miss any? Please let me know!
I love that national Polar Bear Day is so close to my birthday! I wonder if “they” did that on purpose….?
It took lots of effort and money but we were able to arrange that for you. 🙂
Thoroughly enjoyed this, what a great collection of days…
Thank you again for your interesting blog.
Thanks! I have so much fun with it, I’m glad if anyone else enjoys it too.
Thanks for sharing a Calendar of EVENTS. Mtetar
Hope you find a new event to celebrate! 🙂
Yes I’ll and Book Day is #1! I’ll be reading one of Bella Grace Newest Books from http://wakingonwaterwithgrace.org Be Blessed, Mtetar
I love this blog. When my children were small we had a special day but it never happened on the same date each year. It was eat your lunch backwards. In other words, eat dessert first. And if you only feel like having dessert for lunch…go for it.
I pretty much celebrate that holiday every day!!!
I do love the fun holidays people come up with, like “Talk Like a Pirate Day.”
So many cool days here. Thanks for the list. Did you have – or will you be having – a pillow fight today? 😉
Sadly, no. My oldest daughter lives in Austin, so if I had known about Pillow Fight Day earlier, we might actually have planned to go there and participate. But we actually saw her just last weekend, so we didn’t want to drive her too crazy by showing up again so soon. Also, since we had fun last weekend, this weekend had to be dedicated to actual responsibilities. 😦 But maybe next year!
Just for fun, I need to point out that you missed non-textile day. They just had the World Naked Bike Ride in Brisbane but due to indecency laws, people had to cover up. Several wore those Borat style mankinis. That form of textile may well be worse than naked.
How did I miss that with the vast amount of research I did? 🙂 Ever since I read your comment, my mind has been jumping back and forth between visions of the bicyclists I see here in their gaudy Spandex outfits, and bicyclists riding naked! Neither option seems comfortable!
Thanks for adding a day to the list!
This is an AWESOME list. Thank you, thank you, thank you!