Date January 16 | Frequency annual | |
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Next time 16 January 2018 (2018-01-16) | ||
Daily holiday national nothing day
Nothing Day is an "un-event" proposed in 1972 by columnist Harold Pullman Coffin and observed annually on January 16 since 1973, when it was added to Chase's Calendar of Events. It is not actually a public holiday, as that requires an act of Congress. Its purpose is:
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to provide Americans with one National day when they can just sit without celebrating, observing or honoring anything.
It is sponsored by Coffin's National Nothing Foundation, registered in Capitola, California.
The third Monday of every January has subsequently been inaugurated as Martin Luther King Jr. Day which falls between the 15th and 21st. This means that one-in-seven January 16's now fall on a public holiday (e.g. Monday, 16th Jan 2012), effectively usurping the very nature of Nothing Day.
In contrast, the Realist Society of Canada (RSC) has a religious holiday called THABS ( "There has always been something" Day, pronounced /ˈtæbs/). THABS is dedicated to the celebration of the "realization" that "if there was ever nothing, there would be nothing now". It is celebrated July 8 of each year.