Here at AtmosFX, we are always looking to celebrate something — anything! Even though February is the shortest month of the year, it is long on great celebrations: Groundhog Day, St. Valentine's Day, Presidents' Day and, this year, Mardi Gras on Feb. 13. However, let's not forget the less-than-mainstream holidays also happening this month:
February 3: Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. This delicious event has been celebrated on the first Saturday of February since the 1960s when Florence Rappaport tried to cheer-up her children on a dreary winter morning in Rochester, New York. The way to celebrate is extremely simple — just have ice cream for breakfast!
February 7: International Clash Day. This is our hometown Seattle favorite. The fine folks at radio station 90.3 KEXP-FM spotlight the use of music as a tool for social consciousness (and play a lot of Clash records). More than 50 radio stations, music stores, and clubs around the world have joined the effort, as have both municipal and county governments.
February 11-17: International Random Acts of Kindness Week. This holiday should be mandatory though that probably wouldn't make it random, would it? We love the idea because knows how far one act might extend? An internationally recognized day of kindness is on November 13, known as World Kindness Day but the Random Acts of Kindness week is held the second week of February.
February 20: Hoodie Hoo Day. The idea behind this holiday is to raise your hands and shout "Hoodie Hoo!" at noon as a way to ward off the wintertime blues. Oddly, according to the Urban Dictionary, shouting "Hootie Hooo!" during a party means the police have arrived and everyone needs to leave quickly. The February 20th occasion was created by Thomas Roy, who has become something of a professional crazy holiday creator. He's created and copyrighted more than 80, including October 30th's "Haunted Refrigerator Night."
February 24: World Sword Swallower's Day. This year would have been the 11th consecutive year of celebrating sword swallowers on the last Saturday of February. Ripley's — of Ripley's Believe It Or Not fame — co-organized the event for several years in conjunction with the Sword Swallowers Association International. Mysteriously, Ripley’s cut support from the event in 2018, but for sword swallowers around the world, the struggle of ingesting long, sharp blades lives on! Celebrate the day!
