The National Holidays Epidemic

Leave Zucchini on Your Neighbor’s Porch Day is celebrated August 8. Take Your Plants for a Walk Day is on July 27. Answer Cats’s Questions Day falls on January 22. We are currently in an epidemic of random and unnecessary holidays. The good news is that civilization will most likely survive. However, society is a different matter.
Surprisingly, these holidays have been around for longer than we may think. Most of them were started by a corporation as a marketing scheme or an excuse to celebrate their hard work. The National Watermelon Association started National Watermelon Day so long ago that none of the employees know the exact year of its conception.
While the tactic behind some holidays is very obvious, such as Hostess Twinkie Day, others are not as straightforward, like Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day. Along with marketing, there are also some inspirational days such as Use Your Common Sense Day, Read a Book Day, and Good Neighbor Day, which I deem more useful and needed than Brandied Fruit Day.
The most common place to see these holidays is, of course, on social media. Many people use these random days and pop-up hashtags as an excuse to post pictures of them and their cat, them eating a taco, or them wearing lipstick. These people could not possibly post a picture of them and an octopus on the day they went to the aquarium- that would be weird and uncalled for. Instead, they keep the picture and wait until an occasion calls for the post and eventually Octopus Day comes around and gives them the excuse.
These people fail to realize that once Octopus Day comes around, everyone is tired of seeing octopi. Last week was National Cat Day and my feed was infected with pictures of the little devils. Posting about what you want when you want is far better than waiting until everyone and their grandmas post the same thing.
I admit some of these holidays are a brilliant marketing strategy and I commend the person who originally thought of the idea. However,  these “holidays” subtract from the real holidays that have actual purpose and history such as Rosh Hashanah, Ramadan, and Easter. The main thing that pop-up holidays celebrate is American consumerism.
One part of me loves our ability to celebrate the random things and congratulates everyone’s passion for these unnecessary celebrations, and I realize that the worst these holidays do is endorse the takeover of social media. However, the other part of me shudders that some person in our society actually celebrates Underwear Day.