April | Special Days of the Year

The month of April has universal significance as being the month that welcomes the season of spring.

April’s origin has it ranked as the second month of the year by ancient Romans before King Numa Pompilius came along and shoved Ianuarius (January) and Februarius (February) at the beginning of the year, leaving poor old April to languish at fourth place in the calendar.

Not even a place on the podium for April.

Further research indicates that the most metal name April ever held was given by, unsurprisingly, the Finnish, who in the past referred to it as the “slash-and-burn-(month)”. This was in reference to the practice of burning sections of forest to make fields.

So lets take a look at some special days in April!

Also, if you want to find out what events happened on each day in history in April, then click the link on the dates.

1^st April – One Cent Day.

I vow that what I am about to tell you is not a joke, because I never joke on April Fool’s Day if I can help it.

April 1^st is One Cent Day, which has borne Abraham Lincoln’s face since 1909, and costs the U.S Mint 2 cents to make.

If you fall victim to some kind of “penny glued to the floor” trick today, just remember that it’s that coins day to shine.

2^nd April – Ferret Day.

According to the American Ferret Association, today is the day to focus on “ferret issues such as welfare, care, nutrition and responsible ownership”.

But once you have finished that, I suggest that you go and play with a ferret immediately, their preferred method of playing is called the “weasel war dance” and involves hopping around and bumping into things.

3^rd April – Find A Rainbow Day.

Today you are not looking for the pot of gold, but rather the rainbow itself; Find a Rainbow day falls on April 3^rd every year because this is the most likely time to see rainbows with the rains of spring and the sky getting brighter.

They even form at night, if the moonlight is bright enough, though they are usually just white and are more commonly referred to as moonbows.

4^th April – Walk Around Things Day.

The name is meant to be taken both literally and figuratively.

Today you must avoid physical obstacles by walking around them, but also avoid uncomfortable situations like getting out of helping a friend to move, by walking around the situation verbally.

This day was obviously created by somebody who thought that a) trying to get out of an awkward situation just isn’t tricky enough, and b) as a species we tend to walk into things an awful lot.

5^th April – Deep Dish Pizza Day.

Deep Dish Pizza Day is yet another day where we can celebrate pizza, this time a variation that was invented in Chicago in 1943.

With a much thicker crust than its flatbread counterpart, deep dish pizza is baked in a pan similar to a cake pan, to allow room for all those beautiful toppings.

6^th April – Teflon Day.

On Teflon Day we salute the accidental invention of of polytetrafluoroethylene (more commonly known as Teflon) on April 6^th 1938.

Its inventor, Dr. Roy Plunkett, was inducted into the Inventors’ Hall of Fame in 1985 for trying to make a CFC coolant and getting distracted by the slippery white substance blocking his equipment.

But your refrigerator’s loss was your frying pan’s gain.

7^th April – No Housework Day.

A personal favorite, is that day when you don’t have to feel guilty when you convince yourself that the giant pile of clothes on your floor can wait another day, it’s practically mandatory.

Or, if you are the kind of person who has morals, perhaps you could help somebody else celebrate this No Housework Day by doing a few chores for someone who deserves break.

8^th April – Empanada Day.

The name means to wrap in bread, and just about anything can come wrapped in that bread, because empanadas have possibly the most varieties of anything, ever.

They can be sweet, they can be savory, you can have them for lunch, they can be spicy, they can be vegetarian, they can come with chicken, you can have them for breakfast, they can come with beef – basically if you can wrap it in pastry you can have it as an empanada.

Originating in Portugal and the north west of Spain, empanadas are believed to be a derivative of Indian samosas.

So go out today and eat an empanada, if you’ve never tried one then make today the day you try this tasty pastry.

9^th April – Name Yourself Day.

Ever wonder what your life would have been like if your mother hadn’t changed her mind at the last second and called you Moonbeam? Well today you can find out.

Name Yourself Day is celebrated every April 9^th,  and invites you to try out a new name for 24 hours. Just don’t choose Moonbeam, I’ve got dibs this year.

10^th April – Encourage A Young Writer Day.

Today we celebrate the future of all things literary, though it sounds suspiciously like something a well-meaning English teacher thought up.

However, extensive research has found nothing on the official origins of this date, so there’s nothing to stop me from taking a guess.

So if you happen to come across somebody who is young, and could feasibly be a writer, then tousle their hair and say something encouraging, because we’re all counting on you to make sure the next great novel is better than Twilight.

11^th April – Teach Children To Save Day.

The American Bankers Association have sponsored this day since its inception in 1997.

Volunteers from the banking world give talks at schools across America about the importance of saving money from an early age.

12^th April – Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day.

Don’t let the name fool you, not only can you grill cheese sandwiches, you can fry them, make them in a toaster oven, or even on the barbecue.

Eat a grilled cheese sandwich today, and if you accidentally get burned, don’t blame us.

13^th April – Scrabble Day.

Triple letter scores and rare consonants abound as today is Scrabble Day. Scrabble started out life as Criss-Crosswords, a variation of the earlier invented Lexiko by Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938.

Ten years later Connecticut resident James Brunot bought the rights to Criss-Crosswords and simplified the rules, changing the name to Scrabble.

Brunot’s family actually lost money when they started to distribute the game, and so the rights were sold in 1952 to the company that made Scrabble a household name Slechow and Righter.

Don’t worry if you don’t recognize the name, because after a business world game of musical “buy-the-company”, the company went bankrupt after being bought by Coleco and Hasbro ended up owning the game.

14^th April – Reach As High As You Can Day.

Today is all about pursuing your dreams – Achieving your goals & actively trying to make your dream a reality.

Have you always wanted to write a book? Maybe start a band and get famous? Do you want to start a business and be the world’s sexiest china dolphin salesperson?

Today is the day to make it happen, and when you have achieved your goal, remember where you got this sage advice. We do take checks, but cash is preferred.

15^th April – Take a Wild Guess Day.

Created by Jim Barber, specifically to coincide with tax day in the U.S., April 15^th.

While we hope that those doing their taxes neglect to take the spirit of the day to heart, the more sensible of us can use this day to just be really silly when somebody says “Guess what?”.

16^th April – Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day.

Fairly self-explanatory, but I think it’s only really appropriate for office workers and those unlucky souls in retail.

Your pyjama bottoms may be comfy, but can you imagine the pain of a cut or abrasion caused by the fact that those same pyjama bottoms didn’t quite cover the places that your uniform does?

17^th April – Haiku Day.

Haikus began life as a poetic abstract that introduces a longer, collection of linked poems; by 1644 it had become an independent, legitimate, art form of its own.

Here is our own attempt at a Haiku, and don’t judge too harshly because they almost never rhyme and don’t seem to have a hint of a rhythm:

April seventeenth
Is the day we celebrate
Haiku poetry

Okay so it’s not exactly Shakespeare, but today you’ve got to count your syllables because if it isn’t 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables then you’ll look pretty silly at that haiku battle you’ve got coming up.

18^th April – Animal Crackers Day.

These cute little treats have been in production since 1902, and today we celebrate that little monkey that helped Ben Affleck seduce Liv Tyler in Armageddon, and all 36 of his tasty friends.

19^th April – Hanging Out Day.

Don’t let the name fool you, this kind of hanging out does not involve your Xbox, a bunch of friends, and a very large bag of chips.

Instead it involves hanging out your laundry rather than using your dryer.

Founded in 1995, Hanging Out Day is meant to highlight the energy that we use on a daily basis, and to cut it by one appliance.

Since electric clothes dryers can count for up to 10% of a household’s energy usage, and sunshine and wind cost the planet nothing, dryers were selected as the appliance to be turned off.

So hang out your laundry and help to save the world, one laundry load at a time.

20^th April – Chinese Language Day.

Mandarin has the most native speakers, 955 million as of 2010, that’s 14% of the world’s population.

So today learn a simple Mandarin phrase and say it incessantly till everyone around knows what it means.

That’s teaching your friends, a little at a time.

21^st April – Kindergarten Day.

You have the perfect excuse to nap, finger paint and sing songs about various barnyard animals.

The first kindergartens to open and deal with all those toddler tantrums were in 18^th century Bavaria.

While the name literally translates to “child garden”, it was coined by a German man, Friedrich Frobel, who intended the name to be metaphorical, as the idea behind kindergarten is to allow children to grow into social creatures naturally.

22^nd April – Jelly Bean Day.

These tasty treats come in literally any flavor you can think of, so there’s something to please everyone.

Jelly beans have been around since the mid-19^th Century, when people used to send them to soldiers during the American Civil War.

23^rd April – Talk Like Shakespeare Day.

Unlike the oddly formed haiku, April 23^rd is the day we talk like William Shakespeare.

Iambic pentameter and lots of telling the air around you exactly how you feel and exactly what you’re going to do about it.

24^th April – Pigs In A Blanket Day.

Today you can celebrate Pigs In A Blanket Day in two main ways, you can: a) eat a sausage wrapped in some kind of croissant or pastry, or b) you can eat the British version of pigs in blankets: a small sausage wrapped in bacon.

Various versions of pigs in a blanket are found in and around eastern Europe, where they are called “sausage in dough” in Russia, and “sausage in a dressing gown” in Germany.

25^th April – DNA Day.

On April 25^th we salute James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, and Maurice Wilkins, who on this day in 1953, published their first papers on the discovery of DNA and its double helix formation.

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) can also be referred to as the “building blocks of life”, since this molecule features in all known living organisms and a number of viruses.

There has been controversy over the discovery of DNA since the single female on the list, Rosalind Franklin, was only recognized for her contributions to the scientific discovery after she died in 1958.

Her male colleagues were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1962 for the discovery of DNA.

26^th April – Pretzel Day.

Whether you like them crunchy and by the handful, or soft and big enough to fill you up, celebrate the knotted bread that can trace its origins as far back as 610 AD.

There are many different accounts of the origin of the humble pretzel, but most agree that they held religious significance within Catholicism over a thousand years ago.

One version of the pretzels inception states that they began life as a treat given to children who learned their prayers.

And a Germanic folk story involves desperate bakers inventing them when they were held hostage by “dignatories”.

27^th April – Tell A Story Day.

You know how there’s always that one person you know who can talk and talk about the most inane details of their lives?

And no matter how hard you try you just cannot seem to escape the incessant boredom?

Well April 27^th is Tell A Story Day, so you have to put up with it.

More fun ways to celebrate Tell A Story Day include reading a story to someone younger than you, going to the local library and taking part in the various activities there.

You could even just say hello to your grandparents and hear their stories of way back when.

28^th April – Blueberry Pie Day.

Celebrate with a big slice of blueberry pie and the hope that since it’s a holiday, the calories won’t count.

Blueberry pies have been eaten in America since the first settlers arrived in the 16^th Century.

Blueberry pie is considered to be the easiest fruit pie to make because the blueberries themselves require no preparation besides a quick wash.

But the people who think that bake pies all the time, so don’t feel bad if you burn yours.

29^th April – Zipper Day.

The day we appreciate the simple clasping mechanism that keeps our jeans closed, our dresses proper, and prevents all of our stuff from falling out of various bags.

Elias Howe patented a precursor to the zipper in 1851, under the much less catchy name of “Automatic, Continuous Clothing Closure”.

At least 64 years and four additional engineers contributed to the debut of the modern zipper in 1925, where it was used for fastening boots and tobacco pouches.

By 1930 zippers were used on children’s clothing because of how easy they are to use.

30^th April – Bugs Bunny Day.

On April 30^th we salute one of animations oldest and wiliest characters, it’s Bugs Bunny Day!

Bugs Bunny was originally voiced by Mel “man of a thousand voices” Blanc, who also voiced, most notably, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam, Foghorn Leghorn, Sylvester the Cat, Speedy Gonzales, Pepé Le Pew, Wile E. Coyote, and the Tasmanian Devil.

Originally Bugs Bunny was white, but by the third cartoon to feature him, the animators had settled on the iconic gray color.

The “wascally wabbit” gained his immense popularity during World War II, apparently because of his free attitude.

However, an incredibly racist cartoon was made in 1944 featuring Bugs Bunny, since many animation studios pitted their characters against the likes of Hitler and Mussolini at that time.

The cartoon has since been pulled from distribution. If you’re wondering who they pitted Bugs against, it was the Japanese.

If you’re looking for more facts about April, we have some right here!