The National Day of Reason (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_day_of_reason) (NDoR), endorsed first in 2003 and honored by U.S. secularists, occurs on the first Thursday of May. NDoR is a response and counterbalance to the National Day of Prayer, designated by the US Congress since 1952. On this day all humanist Americans can join hands to celebrate rational thinking—a concept all can or should support. The goal: to […]
Andrei Pischalnikoff aka Dr R Snick returns Prepare to be shocked, amazed, entertained, and possibly grossed out. The good Doctor R. Snick will be back to shed light on the origins of the patent medicine shows that began in England then spread in the US like that unfortunate rash. You know the one. You'll learn of […]
Towel Day (http://towelday.org/) is the annual celebration of the life and writings of Douglas Adams (1952-2001), humorist, humanist, conservationist, science fiction writer, and social critic. On that day, fans around the universe proudly carry a towel in his honor. Why a towel? Don't panic, go to the website to see - or better yet, read The Hitchhiker's Guide […]
Some say the proper date is May 26, some say April 30, some say March 27th -- can you ever be sure? When someone says "Today is Opposite Day," he might be lying! Opposite Day is a day to say the reverse of what you mean, with a wink, with a nod; a day when "no" means […]
The Birthday of Science marks the day Thales of Miletus (in 585 BCE) correctly predicted a solar eclipse. A better choice might be the discovery of fire or the wheel, but we don't know exactly when that happened, or who did it. We do know about Thales. His prediction was significant because the idea of cause and effect (causality) applies to all […]
In 2009, freethinker William Bermudez started Hug an Atheist Day (http://www.weirdholiday.com/hug-an-atheist-day/) (June 1st) to poke fun at other groups popping up at the time to encouraged hugging. He called for people to run up and hug atheists or any nonbeliever in general, whether agnostic, skeptic, secular humanist, or with other heretical views. In the words of one […]
The goal of World Environment Day is to stimulate worldwide awareness of environmental issues, and to generate action for conservation. The United Nations General Assembly established World Environment Day (http://worldenvironmentday.global/) in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Each year World Environment Day celebrations occur at a different location around […]
Juneteenth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth), an unofficial American secular holiday but official in Texas, commemorates a major milestone: slavery's end in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas, with news that the war was over and the enslaved were now free. This was two and a half […]
Called Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere, Winter Solstice in the southern, people have marked the June Solstice in some way or another for thousands of years. Many religions have seasonal holy days linked to this day. It is the day when the Northern Hemisphere has more daylight than at any other time of the year. In the […]
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Humanist_Day)World Humanist Day is a day to spread information and combat misinformation about humanism as a life-philosophy and a means to affect change in the world. This secular holiday dates back to the 1980s, when several local state chapters of the American Humanist Association (http://www.humanist.net/) (AHA) began celebrating World Humanist Day. Different chapters had different ideas […]