Don’t be a fool, celebrate these April days
I really detest April Fool’s Day. I’m not a practical joker and for the most part find practical jokes unfunny and as often as not a bit meanspirited. At the same time, I do like celebrating things and April, even April 1, offers all sorts of fun things to celebrate other than pranking people.
Instead of acknowledging April Fool’s Day, I celebrated National One Cent Day. This is the day to pay homage to the lowly but still somehow charming penny. The first one-cent coin was designed by Benjamin Franklin and produced by a private mint in 1787. (The first U.S. mint wasn’t established until 1792.) The original penny read “We Are One” on one side and “Mind Your Business” on the other and was 100 percent copper. Today’s one-cent coin is made of copper and zinc and has borne the image of President Abraham Lincoln since 1909. And, since 2010, the Union Shield on the other side. Personally, I like old’s Ben’s “We Are One” and “Mind Your Business” better but, hey, that’s just me. Anyway, I prefer a holiday of celebration that includes reminiscing about what a penny used to get you — a piece of candy or bubble gum and six-minutes on a parking meter — than I do disconcerting practical jokes.
April offers more to celebrate than one-cent or fool’s days. Today, for instance is National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day. So, grab some bread and return to the bliss of your childhood by biting into this, dare I say, quintessential American gastronomic delicacy.
Sunday is National Chocolate Mousse Day and Monday is one of my personal favorites — National Hug A Newsperson Day. So, if you see me running errands on Monday, please feel free to hug me. Though, you may wish to, for your own safety, warn me before just swooping in for an embrace. Just sayin’ I’m not, and most news people are not, used to getting hugged by strangers. Hollered at and beaten up on social media yes, hugged, not so much.
April 5 is both National Caramel and Deep Dish Pizza Day. I wouldn’t recommend combining the two but see no reason not to have one for dessert after the other. No reason except for the calories.
This is truly a straight from your lips to your hips day of celebration.
April 6 gives us the opportunity to look back on the times we’ve been rejected and reflect on what we learned from that rejection because it’s National Sorry Charlie Day. If that one bums you out, you only have to wait 24 hours to drown your sorrows (or celebrate how far you’ve come since the rejection) because April 7 is National Beer Day. Cheers!
April also brings us National Zoo Lovers Day (April 8) and National Unicorn Day (April 9) and if you want to combine the two you can by celebrating rhinoceros because they are, after all, just chubby unicorns.
The week of April 10 holds a whole host of days to celebrate including National Cinnamon Crescent Day (I’ll have mine with coffee please), National Barber Shop Quartet Day (Let’s hum a few bars of Sweet Adeline together, shall we?), National Big Wind Day (which I always thought should be on the same day as National Eat Your Beans Day), National Scrabble Day (for those of you who can spell without spell check), National Gardening Day (which this time of year could be almost any day), National Rubber Eraser Day (perfect for getting rid of all those erroneous errors you’ve made) and National Wear Your Pajamas to Work Day (working from home as I do, I celebrate this day frequently).
The week of April 17 brings us National Cheeseball Day and National Bat Appreciation Day as well as National Animal Crackers Day and National Columnists’ Day so feel free to celebrate this columnist by gifting me a box or two of those tasty cookies. The week is also host to National Garlic Day and National Hanging Out Day so you can hang out while enjoying garlic fries. April 20 calls for appreciating lima beans with National Respect Lima Beans Day but if that doesn’t float your boat the same day is also National Pineapple Upside Down Cake Day. The week rounds out with National High Five Day, National Jelly Bean Day and National Talk Like Shakespeare Day (to be or not to be one who celebrates, that is the question).
The final week in April brings us no less to celebrate what with National Pigs in a Blanket Day, National Zucchini Bread Day, National Pretzel Day, National Babe Ruth Day, National Superhero Day (send in Captain America!), National Zipper Day (make sure yours is up!) and National Bugs Bunny Day (what’s up doc?).
All in all, there’s a lot of opportunity for celebration in April even if we likely won’t get enough showers to bring us May flowers so cheer up and party on.