The countdown is over. You’ve waited and waited and waited, and waited some more. But wait no more, because National Gibberish Day is HAPPENING NOW! Yep. That’s right. If the date is September 20 it can only mean one thing: it’s National Gibberish Day. Or it can mean other things, too. National Pepperoni Pizza Day! National Punch Day! (The drink, not the thing I want to do to the people who came up with National Punch Day.) National Tradesman Day! National Fried Rice Day! On days like September 20, it’s more clear than ever we have lost our minds.
Maybe. Maybe not. At any rate you’re probably wondering what National Gibberish Day is. Thankfully there is a resource for us, housed right here, but there is no need to adjust your pointer. I will summarise it for you.
National Gibberish Day is dedicated to a type of speech that is nonsensical, or appears to be so. Gibberish may be random speech sounds that mean nothing, or it may be speech that means something, but is a specific jargon that not many people understand. Most times, gibberish refers to informal speech, while gobbledygook refers to the formal writing or speech that is so technical and convoluted that it can’t be easily understood. The word gibberish was first used in the early 16th century, and the name may be an onomatopoeia of what unintelligible speech may sound like. Another theory is the name stems from an 8th century Persian chemist named Jabir, who wrote in technical jargon. National Gibberish Day has always been celebrated on September 20.
Now that I’ve piqued your interest, you’re probably wondering how to observe National Gibberish Day. Again I turn to checkiday.com.
Celebrate the day by talking and writing in gibberish. It really doesn’t matter what you say, as long as other people can’t understand what you are saying.
Lest you think it’s just frivolous (but delicious!) things like pepperoni pizza we celebrate throughout the year, my daughter’s school calendar proves otherwise. In September alone, while there is no National Gibberish Day listed, there is International Literacy Day, Citizenship Day, International Day of Peace, National Good Neighbor Day, Patriot Day, and even two “real” days: Labor Day and the first day of autumn. As if that wasn’t enough, we also have Constitution Week and Hispanic Heritage Month. In the case of the latter, apparently it is the Fiscal Hispanic Heritage Month, because it runs from September 15-October 15.
Absent on the same calendar, however, are Christmas and any other religious holidays. I am not a member of the Let’s End The War On Christmas fan club, but it’s ludicrous December 25 is not recognized as Christmas but, to pick just one example, February 2 is noted on the calendar as Groundhog Day. (One could make a decent argument that Groundhog Day is a religious holiday, at least to the people of Punxsutawney, PA.) If a True Member of The Let’s End The War On Christmas fan club were to call attention to this, it’s fair to concede they have a point.
I know what you’re thinking. We all know what December 25 stands for. But where can one turn to find out what to celebrate on any (every!) given day? In addition to checkiday.com, we also have the fine people affiliated with the National Day Calendar if we are curious as to what makes, say, March 5 so great (National Absinthe Day, National Multiple Personality Day). Allow that to settle in for a moment. National. Absinthe. Day. Gobbler’s Nob has nothing on the legions of absinthe lovers. You can’t make this stuff up.
Or maybe you can? Since we’re living in the age of Fake News, Deep States, disinformation, misinformation, information dissed and information missed, mayhaps the good folks at National Day Calendar simply are having a little fun with us? After all, not even they can account for the germination of National Multiple Personality Day.
But let us assume that we are not being messed with, that there really are, as the Web site claims, over 1500 different “national days.” As more and more people and groups of people demand their 15 seconds, that number will only grow.
And while I have nothing against National Hot Dog Day or National Doughnut Day or National Personal Space Day (a new one his year), I foresee at some future date a National Day Day, celebrating the miracle of National Days all over the world. Lest you think I’m going over the top, I’d like to remind you, once again, of this: National Absinthe Day.
Life Adjacent 