May 25th is the annual celebration of all that is geek. Geek Pride Day is all about being proud of who you are. After all, the geek shall inherit the Earth.

Festivities:
The primary way to celebrate Geek Pride Day is to let your inner geek out. Get together with friends for a friendly game of Magic, watch your favorite geek flick, pick up a comic book, go LARPing, carry a towel, but above all just enjoy being yourself.

History:
The earliest predecessor of Geek Pride Day were events called the Geek Pride Festival between 1998 to 2000, which were organized by Tim McEachern. Years later a fiesta was held all over Spain in 2006 celebrating geek pride to the slogan, “whoever is not geek, raise your lightsaber”. The event was held on May 25th, the anniversary of the release of Star Wars: A New Hope. The goals of the event was to protest the use of the word geek as a pejorative, celebrate their differences, and above all else have fun. In 2008 the event garnered enough attention to cross the Atlantic ocean and was celebrated in the United States.

Geekiness:
The organizers of the 2006 celebration in Spain created a set of geek rights and responsibilities.

Rights:
The right to be even geekier.
The right to not leave your house.
The right to not like football or any other sport.
The right to associate with other nerds.
The right to have few friends (or none at all).
The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
The right to be out of style.
The right to be overweight and near-sighted.
The right to show off your geekiness.
The right to take over the world.

Responsibilities:
Be a geek, no matter what.
Try to be nerdier than anyone else.
If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.
To save and protect all geeky material.
Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a “museum of geekiness.”
Don’t be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.
Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.
Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.
Don’t waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.
Try to take over the world!

Significance:
Geek Pride Day is really about the celebration of differences, appreciating what is unique about us, and being comfortable in your own skin. Geek Pride isn’t just for science fiction, technology, or comic book fans; fundamentally it’s about tolerance and acceptance for everyone and that’s something everyone should celebrate.

Welcome to Geek Holidays, a site dedicated to celebrating the skill, imagination, and the quirkiness in humanity.  Sometimes we celebrate great achievements and sometimes we celebrate the mundane, the only thing that is certain is that we are celebrating.

“This is the day the [insert deity or natural phenomenon here] has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” – Psalm 118:24

You shouldn’t have to look too far to find a reason to enjoy the differences in people.  Hopefully, here you’ll find a reason to spread some merriment or at least a laugh or two.

Be different!

March Holidays

May Holidays

Fantasy

Science Fiction

Observed: March 24th, October 7th, December 10th, ???

Generally credited for being the first computer programmer in 1843!  Ada Lovelace daughter of Lord Byron was an English writer.  Fascinated with Charles Babbage’s work on the analytical engine, Lovelace translated an Italian article on the engine while adding her own notes which contain the first computer program, a method for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers.

Ada Lovelace Day founded to celebrate the contribution of women in science, technology, engineering, and math.  The holiday was first celebrated on March 24th 2009.  While the 2010 celebration was also held on March 24th the 2011 celebration has been scheduled for October 7th by findingada.com.  Some organizations have proposed a December 10th date to coincide with Ada Lovelace’s birthday.

Observed: March 14th

The mathematical constant π is celebrated on March 14th by math enthusiasts.  Pi an irrational and transcendental number is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to it’s diameter.  Pi Approximation Day or Pi Day was founded Larry Shaw, a physicist at the San Francisco Exploratorium where the constant is still celebrated by consuming pies .

The official Pi Day webiste: piday.org

Observed: March 4th

National Grammar Day founded by The Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar in 2008.  NationalGrammarDay.com cleverly uses the imperative:

“March forth on March 4 to speak well, write well, and help others do the same!”

Ten Grammar Myths Exposed
from NationalGrammarDay.com

Read the explanations before you write to express your outrage.

1. A run-on sentence is a really long sentence.
2. You shouldn’t start a sentence with the word “however.”
3. “Irregardless” is not a word.
4. There is only one way to write the possessive form of a word that ends in “s.”
5. Passive voice is always wrong.
6. “I.e.” and “e.g.” mean the same thing.
7. You use “a” before words that start with consonants and “an” before words that start with vowels.
8. It’s incorrect to answer the question “How are you?” with the statement “I’m good.”
9. You shouldn’t split infinitives.
10. You shouldn’t end a sentence with a preposition.

Brief explanations with links to more detailed discussions

Observed: January 28th

Believe or not there is actually a National Kazoo Day.   Chaplin Willard Rahn is credited as being the founder. Go to your local five and dime, pick up a kazoo and play that thing until your blue in the face.

“Of course, kazoo players are not known to be perfectly precise, so feel free to celebrate National Kazoo Day on January 26, 27, or 29th if you so desire.

In fact, most people will agree that we should consider January 24-30, 2011, National Kazoo WEEK! So celebrate all week long.” - nationalkazooday.com

Observed: January 28th

Data Privacy Day is an international holiday intended to raise awareness and promote data privacy.   Both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the United States have passed resolution declaring January 28th National Data Privacy Day.   The day is also celebrated by Canada and dozens of other European countries.  The original purpose was to educate teens and young adults about privacy issues raised by social network sites.  Since it’s inception the audience has been expanded to include all ages and interests related to personally identifiable information.

Many organizations such as Google, Intel, and Microsoft participate in Data Privacy Day by sponsoring activities to promote the development privacy standards.   Data Privacy Day a division of The Privacy Projects a nonprofit think tank, coordinates activities in the United States and Canada  to develop the collaboration, cooperation and shared responsibility in the areas of individual data protection and commercial management of personal information.

Observed: April 22nd

Earth Day the anniversary of the modern environmental movement is celebrated by raising awareness about conservation.  Conservation is the act of protecting or restoring the natural resources of the environment.  If you like clean water, fresh air, or a balanced ecosystem for plants and animals to prosper then you like Earth Day.

The first Earth Day was April 22nd, 1970 called for by Senator Gaylord Nelson from Wisconsin as an environmental teach-in.  At the time teach-ins, a general educational forum on a topic not limited in scope were popular on the Vietnam War.  Senator Nelson favored a grass roots effort centered around local issues as opposed to a centralized approach to the movement.  Approximately 20 million people demonstrated at parks, auditoriums, and universities for a sustainable environment.  The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts.  The national coordinator for Earth Day in 1970 later helped to launch Earth Day Network, an international organization which promotes environmental activities in 192 countries.

“The sea, the great unifier, is man’s only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat.” - Jacques Yves Cousteau