Lips Appreciation Day & Other Crazy Holidays

Will you wear deep purple and emerald green on St. Urho's Day? Are you going to baby your lips on Lips Appreciation Day? Will you make any mistakes on Everything You Do is Right Day?

Curlew Day – What is a curlew? It is a shorebird that has a long, slender, down-curved bill. On March 16 of each year, these birds begin arriving at the Umatilla National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. This happens to be where they choose to spend their nesting season.

I had never heard of a curlew until I came across this unusual holiday. Why not research this bird some more and write a fictional story where a curlew turns out to be the hero?

Everything You Do is Right Day - This day conveniently comes right after Everything You Think is Wrong Day. Even though we have days where everything seems to go wrong, we also have days where nothing at all goes wrong. This day celebrates that. There is no record of this day's creator or the reason it was created, but it was probably the same person who created Everything You Think is Wrong Day.

Days where absolutely nothing goes wrong are not the norm, at least not in my life. What if there was a object found by one of your characters that ensured everything would go right each and every day? How would your character use this object? Remember, there are always consequences for each action, whether they are good or bad. We had a wonderfully warm winter, but as a consequence there will be more insects this summer. So, what is the consequence of nothing ever going wrong?

Freedom of Information Day – March 16 is the birthday of James Madison, a man to whom individual rights were very important. He was not only the 4th president of the United States, he has also been recognized as “Father of the Constitution” and was the main author of the “Bill of Rights”. He would have been extremely pleased in 1966 when the Freedom of Information Act was made into law.

To celebrate this day, why not write an historical fiction story about James Madison and his fight to ensure every American citizen had the same individual rights?

Goddard Day – Robert Hutchings Goddard was born in 1882. This was a man who had visions of rockets and space travel. His belief that space travel would one day occur and his ideas of a liquid-fueled rocket to achieve this travel were ridiculed. He still tried to invent one, though, and would test them out at his aunt's farm in Auburn, Massachusetts. The neighbors complained, but he succeeded and successfully launched the very first liquid-fueled rocket on March 16, 1926. It didn't quite reach the moon, but it was a start. The New York Times mocked his belief that a rocket would one day reach the moon in an editorial published in 1920. Forty-nine years later, the day after Apollo 11 left to go to the moon, they finally got around to publishing a retraction.

Can you imagine being present while Goddard tested his inventions? Can you imagine being one of the people who shared his beliefs and helped him out? Create a character who was there and experienced what happened right along with Goddard. What a fascinating historical fiction tale that would make!

Lips Appreciation Day - When I first saw the name of this unusual holiday, the first thing that came to my mind was Larry the Cucumber. He sings a song titled I Love My Lips/ Have you ever watched a cucumber sing about how he love his lips? If you want to see it, you can find the video on You Tube.

Seriously, since a person's lips are one of the first things that is noticed, this day is set aside to remind you to take extra-special care of your lips. No matter how large or small your lips are, no matter what shape they are, this is the day to show them some tender loving care.

Create a character, probably a child would be best, who doesn't appreciate his (her) lips at all. He refuses to take care of them, he refuses to wear lip balm when they are chapped, and he always is biting on them. He ignores them so much, that one day it looks as though he is going to lose them. What did he do? What happens?

St. Urho's Day - The traditional colors of this holiday are deep purple and emerald green. There are traditional tales of why this day was started, and there are also modern tales. I don't know if any of them are true, but they are kind of interesting. One traditional tale takes place many, many years ago in Finand. St. Urho is nearly always pictured with grapes and grasshoppers. Why? Because he is supposed to have driven the grasshoppers out of ancient Finland in order to save their crop of grapes.

From the many versions of the tale out there, pick one you like. Research it and write a tale about this day.