What's in a Day

The New Diary for 2015
One of the first tasks of the New Year is to begin filling in your new diary. When you open it for the first time it appears to offer 365 days of limitless opportunities. However closer inspection reveals that certain days have already been dedicated by someone else. For instance most diaries will already list all the bank holidays and, if you are of the Christian faith, there will be quite a long list of festival days going way beyond Easter and next Christmas.

Of course you will perhaps then be adding the various family birthdays and, if you are planning to holiday abroad, your diary may well list some of the more common special overseas country holidays that you may wish to avoid because everything the tourist wants will be shutdown. Oh and we must not forget Valentine's Day or Shrove Tuesday when certain members of our families might be expecting special treats. I will personally be noting St Patrick's Day, possibly for the wrong reasons, and other patriots might want to note St Georges Day, St Andrews Day and St David's Day.

Even with this long list you may be thinking there is still a majority of days left for your personal dedication. However, that would be without taking into account World and International Days! These seem to have grown by topsy and turvy over recent years. Many have been designated by international bodies such as the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and UNESCO. Examples include World Social Justice Day, International Women's Day, World Day against Child Labour, World Diabetes Day, and World Hepatitis Day. But early research also produced World Poetry Day, World Jazz Day, World Tourism Day, World Philosophy Day, and World Toilet Day-Draft (don't ask). One I am personally in favour of is World Elder Day!

Most of these "days" are based on UN resolutions which gives them an official stamp but others like World Meteorology Day, by the World Meteorological Organisation and World Day of the Seafarer and World Maritime Day, both by the World Maritime Organization, appear to suggest that the UN does not have a monopoly in these matters. Nevertheless on one count this came to a total of 121 allocated days!

If you can't beat them perhaps we should join them. Further research suggests that others have already jumped onto this bandwagon, with one website listing, for example, World Bubble Wrap Appreciation day (29th Jan), Clear out your Computer day (9th Feb) and International Lefthanders day (13th Aug). So should we have a World Tarvin Day. What do you think? Is there any particular day of the Year that would be especially suitable?