If you think Labor Day was the last important federal holiday in September, you’d be right.
But there are other less official holidays – significant and silly – during the rest of the month.
Patriot Day on 9/11 honors those who were lost at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and on United Flight 93 on the day 22 years ago when terrorists struck. September is also National Suicide Awareness Month and National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.
The two-day Jewish New Year celebration, Rosh Hashanah, begins on the 15th, followed by the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, on the 24th. Muslims worldwide will celebrate Mawlid – birthday of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad – on the 26th and 27th.
For sky gazers, the autumnal equinox on Sept. 23 is when the sun is exactly above the equator and day and night are of equal length. That one and the Jewish holidays are both celebrated around the world. Sept. 15 also kicks off National Hispanic Heritage Month, first celebrated in 1968, according to census.gov.
We’re betting you hardly know about other September observances.
The 6th marks both Fight Procrastination Day and National Read a Book Day. (We recommend you not put off the latter.) Wonderful Weirdos Day shares the 9th of the month with National Teddy Bear Day.
Sept. 8 marks National Ampersand Day, which focuses on the symbol for “and.” It is generally used to denote the names of businesses – such as Johnson & Johnson – & in certain abbreviations & informal communication, according to the National Days Today calendar.
How to celebrate it? Just for fun, look over your previous social-media posts & see how many ampersands you’ve used in the last 10 days. You may be surprised.
Sept. 16 has a full calendar, so to speak. It’s American Legion Day, Mexican Independence Day, Mayflower Day, National Play-Doh Day, National Stepfamily Day, National Working Parents Day, Collect Rocks Day, National Guacamole Day, National Dance Day, International Red Panda Day, National Gymnastics Day and National CleanUp Day.
Sept. 22 will be busy, too, with Hobbit Day, Dear Diary Day, Elephant Appreciation Day, American Business Women’s Day, World Car-Free Day, National Ice Cream Cone Day, National Centenarian’s Day, National White Chocolate Day, Native American Day and National BRAVE Day. That last one focuses on women empowering and supporting each other.
National Punctuation Day falls on Sept. 24 and promotes good writing – not bad! Should you take it seriously? (Not so much; it’s just for fun).
National Crush a Can Day on the 27th is not what you think: You don’t demonstrate your strength by mangling aluminum on this day, because it’s meant to make us aware of regular recycling. It’s not to be confused with Oct. 9’s National Kiss Your Crush Day; that one should be self-explanatory.
National Good Neighbor Day is Sept. 28, followed 24 hours later by Confucius Day and National Coffee Day. It is also National Veterans of Foreign Wars Day, a day to recognize the 124-year-old military organization and its members.
Come Sept. 30, National Love People Day, National Hot Mulled Cider Day, National Ghost Hunting Day and National Chewing Gum Day will cap off the month.
Chew on that.
