Turkey day may be the main event in the second-to-last month of the year, but there are plenty of unusual holidays to fill your November days with celebration.
1. November 2nd: National Plan Your Epitaph Day
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Whether you’re morbid or just really on top of planning ahead, take the day to decide which of your legacies you want set in stone. No pressure, but some claim that a “forgettable gravestone is a fate worse than death.”
2. November 3rd: Sadie Hawkins Day (the first Saturday in November)
The woman asking the man to a dance? How novel! Apparently it was quite novel back in the late 1930s, when Sadie Hawkins Day first appeared in the popular comic strip Li’l Abner. Worried that his homely daughter Sadie might never find a beau, Hekzebiah Hawkins organized a race in which his daughter would chase all the unmarried men in town to the finish line. If she caught one, he was legally obligated to wed her. The holiday became an annual event in the comic strip, and evolved into a real life event as well—with more dancing and less capturing. These days, Sadie Hawkins Day generally occurs on the first Saturday of November.
3. November 4th: King Tut Day
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No, this day does not commemorate the great Egyptian king’s birthday. On this day in 1922, British archeologist Howard Carter and his crew discovered the entrance to King Tut’s tomb. This monumental discovery was one of the greatest archaeological achievements of the 20th century, and remains a huge attraction well into the 21st. The least we can do is take a day to honor it. History for the win!
4. November 5th: Guy Fawkes Day
Let anarchy and chaos reign today, although if you aren’t in England, you may get a lot of strange looks. The eponymous man behind the infamous “Gunpowder Plot” planned to blow up Britain’s Parliament in 1605, spawning annual bonfire celebrations, effigies, and creepy masks for centuries to come. It was Parliament that declared November 5th as a day of celebration to commemorate their foiling of Fawkes and company’s plot, but it’s Fawkes’ mischievous spirit that pervades the festivities.
5. November 6th: National Saxophone Day
Brass on the outside, woodwind on the inside, the saxophone has created sweet, sweet baby-making jams for more than 150 years. Invented in 1846 by Belgian instrument-maker Adolphe Sax, the saxophone has since become a staple of both modern jazz and classical compositions.
6. November 7th: International Tongue Twister Day
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Whether you’re in unique New York or selling seashells by the seashore, show off your impressive command of diction today. Or if you’re really in the mood for a challenge, try mastering a few tongue twisters not in your native tongue.
7. November 13th: World Kindness Day
Founded in 1998 by an organization called the World Kindness Movement, this international holiday encourages everyone to look deep into their hearts past religion, race, and other differences to do something nice for their neighbors and/or humankind.
8. November 15th: Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day
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Or as we like to call it, “Discover the science project you didn’t know you had growing in your refrigerator Day.”
9. November 18th: Use Less Stuff Day
Although the advertising industry works terribly hard to convince us that we never quite have enough stuff, many of us probably use way more stuff than we need. Take the day to reflect on exactly which kinds of stuff are excessive in your day-to-day life, and how you might reduce using said stuff. Or at least clear room for all the new stuff you’ll be getting soon for the holidays.
10. November 19th: World Toilet Day
A holiday devoted to the John, the Pot, the Latrine, the Porcelain God? Sounds like the brainchild of a group of 5th graders. In fact, it’s an international event dedicated to destigmatizing toilets and address the challenges of global sanitation. Created in 2001, the official website points out that billions of people in the world do not have proper access to toilets, but also that in addition to being vital to life, toilets can be “fun and sexy.” (Their words, not ours.)
11. November 19th: International Men’s Day
You may be hard-pressed to find anyone who believes men are internationally underrepresented, but someone still deemed the male gender worthy of a worldwide holiday. The theme of this year’s men’s day is health, more specifically “Helping Men and Boys Live Longer, Happier, and Healthier Lives.” We can’t argue with that!
12. November 22nd: National Start Your Own Country Day
If you’re over the pumpkin pie and family cheer, here’s a fun alternative to Thanksgiving. The apparent product of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, National Start Your Own Country Day salutes those plucky—albeit potentially treasonous and/or imperialist—individuals who believe so strongly in self-determination that they might one day form their own nation-state.
13. November 23rd: National Day of Listening
Sponsored by oral history nonprofit StoryCorps, this year’s National Day of Listening honors teachers. The organization has asked everyone wanting to participate to take a few minutes to thank a teacher (or two). Other ways to commemorate National Day of Listening is by recording interviews in veteran’s hospitals, senior centers, homeless shelters, and other community centers.
14. November 28th: Red Planet Day
The fourth planet from the sun, and home to a future dystopian civilization according to Total Recall, gets its own day of honor in November. And what a year to celebrate, after NASA’s successful landing of the rover on Mars this past August! Plot out your dream Mars colony, wear all red, or perhaps read stories of the Roman God of War—whatever Red Planet activity suits your fancy!
15. November 29th: National Square Dance Day
Despite its close association with cowboys and honky tonk bars, the square dance actually originated in Europe in the 17th century. However, the United States has since taken over its cultural reins, so much so that 19 states have declared it their official dance. If you have yet to try this folk dance, take your partner by the hand and swing him/her down to the nearest hootenanny.
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