Tom Roy has created more than 80 holidays. Credit: Thomas Roy
The Lebanon, Pa. resident is the creator of more than 80 holidays, each one wackier than the last. It started 23 years ago with Northern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day, slated exactly one month before the spring equinox. On Feb. 20 at noon local time, Roy says you should "go outdoors and yell 'Hoodie-Hoo' to chase winter and make ready for spring, one month away."
So who's he to tell you what to do? Roy happens to have had his 80-some holidays printed in Chase's Calendar of Events, the book he was reading 23 years ago to create content for a show at the radio station where he was employed.
"I saw where it said submit your own holidays, and I said wow, I didn't you know you could do that," Roy tells Holidash. So he looked at the calendar in his office and started thinking.
"It was February, and I thought what's going through everyone's head right now? Cabin Fever," Roy continues. "So I looked at the start of spring and counted back one month."
That explains the date. But Hoodie Hoo? "I think it's something Gomer Pyle used to say," Roy confesses. "It just came to me."
He sent off his submission and forgot about it until a year later when a call came into the station. "They said, did you know you're in USA Today?" His "holiday" had earned him a spot on the front page. Roy was hooked. He sent another eight submissions into Chase's that year, and all eight were published. He's been making them up ever since, from For the Love of Mike Day to What If Cats and Dogs Had Opposable Thumbs Day?
Panic Day -- the ninth of March when he recommends you run around in a panic telling others you can't handle it -- is one of his favorites. Borne of a stint he spent in therapy in his thirties, Roy says it's a reminder of the classic Franklin Delanore Roosevelt quote, "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." It's followed closely by Nov. 30, Roy's own birthday, which he's dubbed Stay Home Because You're Well Day. "It's in honor of all of us who called into work and feigned illness only to have a miraculous recovery by 8 a.m. the next morning," he says with a laugh. "Everybody should have one day when they say I feel too good to go to work and the boss should be OK with it."
For years Roy had a relationship with Blue Mountain, sending out e-greetings for his holidays, but he's slowed down the celebrations in recent years. In part because wife Ruth said enough was enough, he confesses, but he doesn't mind sharing the festivities with other folks.
Anyone can send Chase's a submission, or they can just start celebrating.
"It doesn't cost anything to celebrate them, that's the cool thing," Roy says. "You don't even need anyone's blessing. I just say Chase's because they publish them, but you don't need Congress' stamp of approval, you don't need your town government ... you don't need anyone else's permission."
Want to make your own holiday? Get your submission in to Chase's by April 15. Don't forget to check Roy's list to find out what holiday you should be celebrating this week.
