Another International Something Day...

Spurious ‘celebration days’ are easy to dismiss as nonsense but, says Russ Swan, it is time we put our cynicism aside as he wishes us a happy International Something Day!

Good day to you. I hope you are getting the most out of the day and its special significance, for today, as I’m sure you are aware, is international something day.

Lacking the telepathy to know exactly when you are reading this, I can’t be sure which celebratory day it is – but there are certainly a few to choose from. Every single day of the year has been claimed by special interest groups of some sort, from Red Panda Awareness Day to Star Trek Day – both of which happen to be this month.

The rot really set in when marketing types discovered the potential to sell us even more useless tat and overpriced bits of cardboard

September is of course also Happy Cat Month and Piano Month. Our cat is most happy when I don’t attempt to play the piano. Make of that what you will. These bogus celebrations have evolved from ancient habits of marking seasonal events such as solstices, and later by religions to remember the birth or death of particular figures of significance. The rot really set in when marketing types discovered the potential to sell us even more useless tat and overpriced bits of cardboard. Mothers’ Day can be considered a proper day, being celebrated for millennia. Fathers’ Day? Despite what the internet might tell you, this is essentially a celebration of the power of guilt to sell more greetings cards and pairs of socks.

Cynicism aside, I reckon Lab News readers aren’t treated to enough of these days and, when we are, we don’t make enough of them. For example, did you celebrate Biomedical Science Day on 19 July? My mole, working at a biomedical science lab at a major UK teaching hospital, tells me that nobody in the entire building had even heard of it. This must be a little dispiriting for the organiser, the Institute of Biomedical Science, which created the event “to raise public awareness of the importance of biomedical science and the vital role it plays in the world” as well as marking the 135th birthday of its founder Albert Norman.

IBMS is in good company, for science-related commemorative days seem to win even less attention than others of the ilk. Who remembers the last geologists’ day? Nobody, because there isn’t one (except in Russia, where the first Sunday in April celebrates geologists, geophysicists, and geochemists). Biologists’ Day? Nope. What about Chemists’ Day? There isn’t one of those either, although the Royal Society of Chemistry does have a week-long chemistry festival in late November which, like British Science Week in March, offers a number of public-facing events and activities.

These are big topics, so perhaps a single day wasn’t enough. Apparently, the homeopathists took the opposite approach: they were going to set up a day, but felt it would be just as powerful to nominate a single millisecond. For anybody wishing to celebrate it, that event occurs never.

What no Science Day?

The UK has no national science day, unlike India (28 February), and as far as I can see plays little role in UNESCO’s attempt to promote 10 November as World Science Day for Peace and Development. Go on, admit it, you’d never heard of it either. So I propose that we all make a special effort to tell at least one person how excited we are to recognise various science-related days in the coming months.

Darwin Day on 12 February seems like a good opportunity to explain the difference between facts and superstition, for example, but if that’s too far away you could jump on the bandwagon for Defy Superstition Day on 13 September. Be aware though, that opposing forces may rally for Supernatural Day on 23 September (not to be confused with Halloween, a few weeks later).

What started as a fringe movement in the 1970s is increasingly the rallying point for those seeking to resist all forms of anti-enlightenment

Perhaps the most successful event of this type in our realm is Earth Day, 22 April, which has grown into a radical coalition of hippies, scientists, hippy scientists, environmental activists, and liberal campaigners. What started as a fringe movement in the 1970s is increasingly the rallying point for those seeking to resist all forms of anti-enlightenment. But it isn’t a science day, and among its wide range of supporters will be some who would deny actual scientific learning.

What are we left with? There is Geek Pride on 25 May, and Bunsen Burner Day on 31 March. Neither is quite right. Is it too much to hope that we could come up with a regular annual celebration of all that we hold dear, a proper day to celebrate scientific facts and progress?

Perhaps I’ll save that one for 29 September, also known as Ask a Stupid Question Day.

Russ Swan