13 Fictional Pop Culture Holidays That Should Totally Exist
LEAP DAY comes but once every four years — and it's a perfect time to wish your friends who were born on that day a very happy...third birthday? BUT THE holiday doesn't have much in the way of celebration beyond that — and, of course, an epic 30 Rock episode in which Leap Day is a much, much bigger deal in Liz Lemon's world than it is in ours. We got to thinking about all the other super cool holidays from pop culture that we should totally be celebrating. (And, of course, be given the day off from work and school.) WHO WOULDN'T want to celebrate October 3rd over again by having a Mean Girls marathon? Or who among us wouldn’t want a fun Galentine’s Day of our own hanging with all the single ladies we know? SO IN honor of Leap Day, we’ve picked the best pop culture holidays that we believe should exist and be definitely made into national holidays. From Stars Wars to Harry Potter, let’s celebrate these iconic days from pop culture that are too often overlooked on our mainstream calendars.
1/13Galentine's Day, February 13
Galentine’s Day is all about being with your girls. Leslie Knope from Parks and Recreation did us the honor and made the day before pre-Valentine’s Day a special one for you and your best girlfriends. “It’s like Lilith Fair minus the angst,” Leslie says. “Plus frittatas.” Yum!
2/13Leap Day, February 29
Let's recap the 30 Rock episode that was so bizarre, it was brilliant, shall we? Leap Day is an actual movie based on an actual, mythical man with gills and fangs, who trades children's tears for candy. It's basically the one day where anything goes, and the whole gang finally learns the theme of togetherness.
3/13May the Fourth Be With You
It’s hard to not have a 4th of May without the mention of the “May the Forth Be With You” jokes on Facebook and Instagram. Yeah, so it’s a cheesy pun on “The Force” — that secret power the good guys have in the Star Wars. So let’s just go that extra step further and make it into a public holiday already.
4/13Whacking Day, May 10
Who doesn’t remember the famous Whacking Day holiday from The Simpsons? A traditional holiday celebrated on May 10 in Springfield, USA where folks lure snakes to the center of town and whack them to death with sticks. We can't say it would be all fun to kill all those snakes but any day off school and work is a day I definitely want to be celebrating.
5/13Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The lesson of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is basically that taking the day off school and not telling anyone leads to the best day ever — and in Ferris' case, that was June 5th. We each deserve that special weekday off, where we don’t not have to worry about school or work and just wake up late, sing in the shower and just dream about the young and uber good-looking 1980s Matthew Broderick.
6/13Harry Potter's Birthday
July 31st is by far the most important birthday from the entire Harry Potter series (duh, it’s Harry’s) but it's also J. K. Rowling’s b-day too. Rowling not only gave us the greatest wizard of all time but also helped break down barriers for women and publishing, shaping herself into one of the most famous authors of all time. Surely, we should get a day to celebrate these two icons?
7/13Treat Yo Self Day
AKA, any day. This is a day we would sure like to happen more than once a year, but will definitely settle for at least once. Parks and Recreation's Tom and Donna invented this day to be all about pampering yourself. It can be a date or a shopping trip or even just a lazy lie-in in bed. But it must involve being indulgent. Where do we sign up?
8/13Mean Girls Day
Perhaps the greatest day in October (after Halloween, of course), October 3rd really needs to a national holiday. Maybe we could all bake cakes together made of rainbows? Or just plan what pink outfit we have to wear on Wednesdays. All we know is that this is one of pop culture’s most iconic dates and really deserves its own special day...ven just to rewatch Mean Girls for the 89th time…
9/13October 19th
October 19th should be a holiday because it celebrates Community, one of the best comedy show of the past few years. Before NBC decided to pull the plug on the series, the fourth season was to originally air on October 19, 2012 but was delayed another 5 months. October 19 Day should totally be a day to honor Community with Netflix binges and for marathon-ing on your favorite TV shows.
10/13Robanukah
The holiest holiday on the robot calendar, Robanukah was created by Futurama’s Bender to get out of work. It’s a day traditionally for partying, doing “robot” break dances and, of course, not working. We’re not entirely sure when it falls because of how confusing the robot calendar can be, but definitely think it’s a day we want to get behind for the Christmas holidays.
11/13Merlinpeen
When Frank, Lutz and Toofer don’t want to join Kenneth’s Santa gift swap on 30 Rock, they invent “Merlinpeen," a made-up festive holiday which is just “like Christmas except more meat cubes.” If we leave out the meat cubes and keep the holiday part, we’re definitely down. Maybe it could be on the last Friday before Christmas? Please? Pretty please? We need that extra long holiday break.
12/13Chrismukkah
For any of us with an interfaith holiday season celebrating both Christmas and Hanukkah, Chrismukkah is the best thing yet. This cross-between holiday was popularized by Seth from The O.C., and it means more holiday time, lots of Chinese takeout, and bad Christmas movies...But it's really another day to get “many more” gifts that you just didn’t get from Christmas.
13/13Festivus
Festivus is a day invented by Seinfeld that is an anti-Christmas holiday. It’s known as a “festivus for the rest of us,” a day to get away from the stress, fake cheer and madness of Christmas time and be miserable. Although we’d probably happily skip the “Airing of Grievances” and the aluminium pole, the option to start our Christmas holidays a few days earlier is definitely something we’d happily take.
