SO MUCH TO CELEBRATE

Many people say there’s nothing to celebrate right now. I’m not talking about the petrol price and power cuts and the general state of the world at the moment. I’m talking about the notion that there’s literally nothing to celebrate. Heritage Day/Braai Day has come and gone, and now it’s a long dry spell until the festive season with not a single public holiday in sight. Unless you want to go American and commemorate Halloween, it seems October holds no particular significance.

Except that, if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that there are in fact many things to commemorate.

For example, October is National Sarcasm Awareness Month. Now there’s something that needs to be celebrated all over the world. Who wouldn’t want to stop what they’re doing and spend a whole month honouring the lowest form of wit? (Please feel free to use this entire paragraph as an example of how Sarcasm Month might be celebrated… if you want, or not, like who cares… whatever.)

It seems fitting somehow that October is also Emotional Intelligence Month. Coincidence? Possibly. But one thing’s for sure… you’ll probably have to pick one or the other. Sarcasm and emotional intelligence haven’t historically gone hand-in-hand.

There’s also World Post Day on 9 October. If you’ve actually used our postal service and actually expect your mail to be delivered, this just might be the day for you. Who knows? Maybe your letter will arrive in time for World Smile Day. And if it doesn’t, there’s always World Smile Day 2023, or 2024…

9 October also happens to be World Migratory Bird Day. There seems to be some hidden advice there: instead of the postal service, you might be better off taking your chances with a carrier pigeon.

You might want to mark World Pizza and World Vegetarian Day (and hey, you could celebrate those two at the same time). Or you could choose Coffee Day or Chocolate Cupcake Day, though you might decide against Moldy Cheese Day. It’s possibly safer to sip on your coffee, as you wonder who comes up with these days anyway. (Though you might want to save that negative thinking for International Skeptics Day later in the month.)

There’s also something called Moment of Frustration Day on October 12. But some might say one day simply isn’t enough. After all, seven hours of that day could very well be taken up by loadshedding (if you’re lucky) - leaving very little time available for expressions of said frustrations.

You could also take your parents to lunch or your teddy to work on 12 October (because it’s a day for both, apparently). Or you could go wild and do it the other way around. Make a Difference Day is a nice one to diarise, though it clashes with National Nut Day so you might be forced to choose. And 19 October is Evaluate Your Life Day, although some of us (for better or worse) do that all year round.

And if you don’t have the energy for any of this, just hold out for National Sloth Day… and do absolutely nothing at all.