What to Celebrate February 17 thru 23, 2020
Celebration Ideas for February 17 – 23, 2020
Well Valentine’s Day is over (or will be soon if you’re reading this right after it posted). We hope you had (or are having!) a good one.
But now we’re about to enter a dry period in terms of widely celebrated holidays (if you get President’s Day off, lucky you!). Of course, if you prefer not to be quite so mainstream you can still find plenty to celebrate.
Like Haiku and embroidery. Cabbage & wine (not necessarily together). And ice cream for breakfast!
Don’t forget wildlife, dog biscuits, and curling. And that’s not all!
So make sure you take a peek and plan your week. And never forget to …
Enjoy!
Celebrate for the rest of February
For February we take care of our health. Which can only help us have more energy for our creative pursuits. Like writing Haiku and improving our embroidery!
National Haiku Writing Month: Yikes! We’re half-way through the month & we haven’t written a single haiku! Time to get started celebrating. It’s easy; just write a haiku each day during the month … Ok, maybe not all that easy. At any rate, we’ve never succeeded at it. But we do keep trying! How about you?
National Embroidery Month: Practice new embroidery techniques this month. Or learn to embroider.
National Wise Health Care Consumer Month: Take some time this month to learn how you can make better, more informed decisions about your health care. After all, it is about your health!
National Self-Check Month: Speaking of wise health care consumption, are you doing self-checks and keeping your annual wellness appointments? Both are important for preventing illness and/or finding problems early when they’re easier to treat. If you’re not, use this month to start doing self-checks and make an appointment to see your doctor. Get lots of prevention tips at Self Chec, founder of this month.
Weekly Celebrations for February’s 3rd Week
For this week we are kind. To people we know, people we don’t know, and even the birds.
Random Acts of Kindness Week (February 16 – 23, 2020): It’s a whole week of doing kind things for people. Friends, family, and random strangers. Especially random strangers, because you never know just how much a kind act might mean to someone. Try to do at least one random act of kindness each day. And on the 17th, which is RAK Day, try to do as many as you possibly can.
National Nestbox Week: We can do random acts of kindness for the birds, too! How? Make boxes for your backyard birds to nest in. Technically this is a British celebration, but we support helping birds wherever they live in the world. So find out if any of your feathered visitors like nestboxes, and if they do give them some. Audubon has tips for putting up nestboxes here in the US. But nestboxes aren’t just for birds! Bats & other wildlife like them too (they need different kinds & locations than the birds).
National FFA Week: Celebrate and support tomorrow’s farmers during this week. Not sure how? The FFA offers some ideas for anyone who wants to support local FFA members
Celebration Days coming up for Feb. 17 thru Feb. 23
Yes, the 17th is President’s Day, and some of you may have it off. If you do, you’ll have plenty of time for spreading kindness and cooking cabbage! If you still have to work, at least you’ll have other options for celebrating.
And then the real fun can begin, as we recover from the President’s Day fun with ice cream for breakfast and a glass of wine for later.
As the week goes on we love our pets (don’t we do that every day?!), protect wildlife, and salute America’s women veterans.
Of course there’s plenty more special days just waiting to help you have another fun-tastic week.
February 17:
Random Acts of Kindness Day: Perform random acts of kindness throughout the day. Not for recognition, but just because it feels good. It’ll make the world a better place for at least one day … and hopefully a whole week, because this day is part of RAK Week.
Analog to Digital TV Day: Once upon a time TV signals were something called “analog.” And the quality of the picture you got depended on the amplitude and frequency of the signal. It doesn’t really matter what that means, because in 2009 all TV signals in the US switched over to digital. Well, except for low-power stations, some of which can still broadcast analog signals until next year. With digital the picture quality doesn’t change much until the signal gets really bad. Now, if you remember this switch you might be wondering: “Hey, didn’t that happen in June?” Yes, yes it did (on June 12 to be exact). But we celebrate on Feb. 17 because that was the original planned date.
My Way Day: On this day you do things your way! Don’t worry about whether it’s the “right” way. Just do what feels right to you. Because there’s usually more than one way to do things, and none of them are any more right or wrong than others. (Well, except things like, for example, driving. If “your way” is too different from everyone else’s you could be putting yourself & others in danger).
National Cabbage Day: Now you might be thinking St. Patrick’s Day should be Cabbage Day. After all, doesn’t everyone eat corned beef & cabbage on March 17? Well, no although we can understand why it seems that way! And we celebrate this versatile vegetable in February because … well, we have no clue! But cabbage is delicious and nutritious, so make sure you add some to your meals to celebrate. Try one or more of these recipes, ranging from gratin to stir-fry! They use different kinds of cabbage too, including red and Napa.
February 18:
National Drink Wine Day: Even if you don’t normally celebrate the end of a long day with a glass of wine, this is the day to make an exception. Sip a glass of your favorite wine and relax. Don’t drink? There are non-alcoholic wines you might like. Or just have a glass of your favorite time-to-relax drink, whatever that may be.
National Battery Day: Contemplate life without batteries as you sip your wine. And then vow not to get quite so irritated when your battery power runs low at the worst possible time. Because it really would be worse without any batteries at all! We celebrate these storers of power on the birthday of Alessandro Volta, who created the first electric battery with his “voltaic piles.”
Pluto Day: In more science-related celebrations, we find joy in the day back in 1930 when Clyde Tombaugh discovered the little planet (called Planet X during the years-long search) we call Pluto. And we try to forget that sad day the brave orb was demoted to “dwarf planet” (also known as Pluto Demoted Day). But for this day we party!
International Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day: Wait, didn’t we just have ice cream for breakfast a few weeks ago? Yes we did! But this is a different celebration. This one honors kids who are fighting or have fought cancer. We celebrate their lives on the birthday of a little girl who lost her fight but lives on in the memory of all who loved her. And in this day.
National Crab Stuffed Flounder Day: You need some food to go with that wine. And this delightful fish dish is perfect. Try this easy stuffed flounder recipe.
February 19:
Chocolate Mint Day: Enjoy the flavor combination of chocolate and mint all day. And you don’t have to stick with chocolate-mint candies. You can find this refreshing combo in everything from coffee to ice cream. And even lip balm & toothpaste!
National Vet Girls RISE Day: On this day we recognize the dedication of America’s women veterans and raise awareness of their needs. Women have actually always served in our armed forces, even if their service went unrecognized until relatively recently. And now organizations like this not only recognize but try to meet the unique needs of women veterans.
February 20:
National Love Your Pet Day: Yes, we know. You love your pet every day! But life gets busy, and sometimes you don’t get to spend as much time loving on them as you’d like. This is your reminder to give them some extra attention. Because their lives are short, and you’re their whole world.
Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day: Residents of the Northern hemisphere are tired of winter by now. So Tom & Ruth Roy came up with one of their unique celebrations to help us chase away the season and make way for the coming spring. How? Just step outside at noon (your time), and yell “Hoodie-Hoo!”
International PechaKucha Day: Be a part of the very 1st PechaKucha Day! What the heck is a PechaKucha? It’s a storytelling platform that makes it simple for you to create short presentations. In a nutshell, it’s 20 images and 20 seconds of narration per image. Done! The company’s goal for this day is to have as many people as possible giving PK presentations on this day.
National Cherry Pie Day: For this day we eat pie! But unlike Pie Day, we don’t get to choose the kind of pie. This day is all about the cherry pie. Of course, cherry pie recipes differ, so use your favorite to make a cherry pie to celebrate. Or buy a cherry pie from your favorite bakery. Don’t have a favorite cherry pie recipe? Try this one.
February 21:
National Caregivers Day: This day honors those medical professionals who care for people who need long-term care or hospice care. They don’t just give medical care, they help with daily personal care like bathing. And they make their patients as comfortable as possible while doing it. They help their patients’ families feel more comfortable too, knowing their loved ones are getting the help they need. So if you know any caregivers, thank them for all they do. Also, although the day is technically for the professional caregivers, family and friend caregivers deserve a thank-you for their tireless work too.
National Grain-Free Day: For this day we show friends and family members on restricted diets some love. Not that we don’t love them every day! But we learn a bit more about how challenging living grain-free can be. It’s gotten easier in recent years, but it’s still not easy. And people who can’t eat grains often find themselves having to pick & choose what they can eat at parties & holiday meals. But for this one day friends and family gather to enjoy a meal everyone can enjoy all of. The founders of Siete Family Foods understand the grain free challenge, which is why they founded their company and created this day.
National Sticky Bun Day: Eat sticky buns! Have ’em for breakfast or dessert. Even better, both! You know homemade is best, so if you have time, do that. This Old-Fashioned Sticky Buns recipe looks amazing. It even includes a make-ahead option so you can assemble everything in advance & refrigerate until you’re ready to bake (well, almost … you will need a couple of hours to leave them at room temp before baking).
February 22:
National Wildlife Day: Too many animals around the world are in danger of going extinct. And after recent wildfires (especially in Australia), many already vulnerable animals are in even more danger. 😥 On Steve Irwin’s birthday, let’s ask how we can help. And then do it!
World Thinking Day: This day is for Girl Scouts & Girl Guides around the world to celebrate friendship, speak about issues affecting them, and raise funds to support their programs. It probably wouldn’t hurt for the rest of us to also do some thinking about friendship and how worldwide issues affect us and everyone else.
Woolworth’s Day: Celebrate the opening of the very first Woolworth’s on Feb. 22, 1878 in Utica, New York. It didn’t last long, but Frank Woolworth didn’t give up. He re-opened in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and the rest is history. Sadly, though the company lasted more than 100 years, by mid-1997 the Woolworth’s name was also history in the US, where it began. The name did survive in other countries, although in some cases the companies using the name have no links to the original.
National Margarita Day: Mix up your favorite margarita and enjoy. Or see which of these margarita recipes looks good to you. Try a couple, even! But make sure you and any guests who join you won’t be driving afterwards.
National Cook a Sweet Potato Day: Turn your sweet potato into fries, mash, casserole, pancakes, or just bake it. These yummy root vegetables make a delicious and nutritious addition to any meal. Check out these 35 recipes, which includes most of these ideas & many more. May we suggest you cook your sweet potato before you’ve had too many Margaritas …
February 23:
International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day: Your dog no doubt thinks this is every day. Or at least any day you hand out yummy biscuit treats! And hand them out you must for this day. How else can you celebrate except with lots of biscuits? Well, unless you plan to make your lucky pooch homemade dog biscuits …
Curling is Cool Day: Celebrate the the slightly weird team sport played with rocks & brooms. Ok, not exactly. But kind of! The stones and the brooms are special, and players do sweep the stones across the ice. The game is not new, although many people had probably never heard of it until it made it into the 1998 Winter Olympics. We’re unsure if the game is cool because people actually believe it’s awesome, or because it’s played on ice … 😉
Single Tasking Day: Multi-tasking is stressful. And often not as productive as you might believe. So for this day try single tasking. That is, do one thing at a time until it’s done. Then—and only then!—move on to the next item on your to-do list. You may just find you get a whole lot more done! And feel calmer doing it.
Tootsie Roll Day: Feb. 23 may or may not be the anniversary of the day Leo Hirshfield (or Hirschfeld) started selling little wrapped candies he called Tootsie rolls in 1896. And he may or may not have named his candies after his daughter’s nickname (Tootsie). Whatever the truth of these candies’ beginnings, on this day we can all indulge our sweet tooths with Tootsie Rolls.
National Banana Bread Day: Mmmmm … one of the most delicious ways to use over-ripe bananas is banana bread! Plan ahead to have some easily mashed bananas on hand for this day. Then use this banana bread recipe if you don’t already have one. Nuts optional, but always recommended!
