JULY 17: WORLD EMOJI DAY
Internet-age Communication now goes far beyond pressing send on a simple text message. Check your social media feeds or text messages. How many smiley faces, flying hearts, avocados, and unicorns do you see? These iconic little images, known as emojis, are more popular today than ever before — so, naturally, they have their own special day: World Emoji Day. While sometimes they may seem silly, according to various psychologists and researchers, they may play a vital role in the way we communicate today. In fact, Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2015 was the 😂 emoji.
Before the emoji, there were emoticons (emotion + icon), developed as an expression of emotions in cold hard texts. “Emoji” was coined by Shigetaka Kurita in 1990 while working for the Japanese telecom company NTT Docomo. It is a Japanese expression, roughly meaning “picture word.” The first Apple iPhone (2007) had an emoji keyboard to nab the Japanese market. While not intended for US users, Americans quickly found it and figured out how to use it. Every year new emojis are developed. Over 1800 emojis cover much more than just emotions. From transportation, food, an assortment of wild and domesticated animals to social platforms, weather, and bodily functions, emojis virtually speak for themselves.
JULY 18: WORLD LISTENING DAY
Shhh . . . hear that? It’s the sound of World Listening Day. World Listening Day is hosted every year by the World Listening Project, a nonprofit organization “devoted to understanding the world and its natural environment, societies, and cultures through the practice of listening and field recording.” They explore acoustic ecology, a discipline that studies the relationship between humans and the natural world as mediated through sound.
Listening is indeed an art that requires undivided attention and patience from a person and benefits another who is in need of it. Listening is also beneficial for the listener, improving their listening skills and sharpening their awareness of their surroundings. As important as our sense of hearing is, we often don’t use it effectively, blocking out most sounds and voices, and not really listening to the message.
World Listening Day falls on July 18 to honor the birthday of Raymond Murray Schafer, a Canadian composer and environmentalist who is the founder of acoustic ecology. Born on July 18, 1933, he developed his World Soundscape Project, laying the fundamental ideas and practices of acoustic ecology in the 1970s. Established in 2010, each year the holiday has a specific theme tied to it. Past themes include “H2O,” “Sounds Lost & Found,” and “Listen to You!” The theme for World Listening Day 2023 is “Listen to the Sounds of Nature.”
JULY 19: NATIONAL HOT DOG DAY
National Hot Dog Day celebrates a summertime staple on a bun. Enjoy one piping hot and add some relish and mustard to go! This day pays homage to the frankfurter, the footlong or wienie, wiener, wienerwurst or even “red hot.” It tastes just as great no matter what we call it. And Americans love it. Each year, over 25 million hot dogs are sold at baseball stadiums, alone.
We make them a variety of ways. They’re portable and easy to make. While many of us prefer them grilled or toasted over a fire, we also boil, pan-fry, and rotisserie-cook them. The list of toppings is numerous – from the basic ketchup, mustard or relish to onions, mayonnaise, cheese, bacon, chili and sauerkraut. And the list keeps growing. Adults and children love them.
JULY 20: NAP DAY
Humans are monophasic sleepers, meaning they devote one part of the day to sleep, and the other part to being awake. The one exception: naps! Nap Day was invented by William Anthony, Ph.D., and his wife Camille Anthony in 1999. The couple wanted to help educate people about the power of a good nap and how getting just a little extra rest could be important to health.
Naps provide numerous benefits, as long as they aren't too long. Naps that are about 10 to 30 minutes in length improve mood, alertness, and performance — both mentally and physically. The alertness that naps provide can last for a few hours. Naps of 10 minutes in length provide the most benefit of improved cognitive performance and reduced sleepiness. Naps also provide relaxation and rejuvenation.
Not all naps are beneficial, though. If the length of a nap is too long, it can make a person groggy or disoriented. This may last up to a half an hour, and be particularly bad for those who need to do a task immediately after waking up. Naps that last too long can also negatively impact nighttime sleep, as can naps that are taken too late in the day.
JULY 21: INVITE AN ALIEN TO LIVE WITH YOU DAY
Get ready to boldly go where no human has gone before on Invite an Alien to Live with You Day! This quirky and fun holiday was created to celebrate our curiosity about extraterrestrial life and the possibilities of intergalactic relationships. It's a great opportunity for science fiction fans to have a bit of fun, but also serves as an important reminder that there may be more out there in the universe than we can imagine.
Invite an Alien To Live With You Day is celebrated every year on July 21 to remember the four-year-long Pam Dawber and Robin Williams show “Mork & Mindy.” The show is about an alien from the planet Ork named Mork, played by Williams, on a mission to Earth to study human behavior. Mork travels to 1970s Boulder, Colorado after his egg-shaped spacecraft lands there. Here, he meets up with Mindy, played by Dawber, who is a young journalism graduate who lets him live in her house. The episodes revolve around Williams’ hilarious portrayal of a bumbling alien trying to get a handle on Earth culture along with his frequent dispatches back to his home planet. Storylines are usually centered around Mork’s attempts to understand human behavior and American culture, while Mindy helps him adjust to life on Earth. Fifty-five to sixty million people tuned in each week to watch it “Mork & Mindy”'s four year run.
JULY 22: SPOONERS (SPOONERISM) DAY
Spoonerism Day honors “Spoonerisms,” tongue slips that most of us make regularly. The term ‘spoonerism’ refers to the practice of switching the initial letters of words as you speak. Say swy flutter instead of a fly swatter, or runny babbit instead of a bunny rabbit. They earned their name from Reverend William Archibald Spooner — a prominent Oxford don and, eventually, Warden (or president) from 1903 to 1924. One of his most famous “Spoonerism” was "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride," which he apparently said while performing a wedding ceremony for a couple.
Long before Spooner was born, the Greeks had a term for this sort of impediment — “metathesis,” which refers to the act of rearranging items. So, Reverend Spooner is far from the only person who has made this mistake. It is, in fact, fairly frequent. Spoonerisms are often said by accident, just as they were done by Spooner, but nowadays they are often said on purpose as well, for their humorous effect. No matter why they are said, celebrate them today.
JULY 23: HOT ENOUGH FOR YA DAY
Summer is slowly reaching its peak, and so is everyone’s patience with the weather. Hot Enough for Ya Day is a way to make light of the balmy and muggy heat. Summer days and nights are usually filled with hot and humid atmospheres with very high temperatures. During this time, people tend to lose interest in their daily activities because of how over-whelmingly hot it is. As peak summer hits, heat stroke, suffocation, high blood pressure, and muscle cramps go on the rise.
But all is not doom and gloom. You can plan interesting activities that revolve around making the most of the summer, and you can start all this by asking the question, “Hot enough for ya?”.
It is uncertain who or when the first Hot Enough for Ya Day was started — it’s been around since 1989 — but one thing is clear: Someone somewhere was so fed up with the hot weather that they went around asking people “Hot enough for ya?” for the fun of it. You can start your day with things that will cool you down. It could be eating a bowl of ice cream [Editor’s note: it’s also National Vanilla Ice Cream Day] or drinking a cold glass of lemonade. Swimming is another great option. For centuries now, people have been making a beeline for water bodies to cool themselves down. A splash in the water does the trick when nothing else works. If all else still fails, do not worry, just do whatever floats your boat within the cool vicinity of your homes.