The Complete Guide to July's Obscure Holidays
July runs on peak-summer energy — Moon Day marks Apollo 11's landing, World UFO Day leans into Roswell, and there's a genuine cluster of frozen-dessert holidays (peach ice cream, vanilla ice cream, creative ice cream flavors generally) stacked across the month.
This guide walks through all 63, day by day, with a bit of history or context for each one and a link to the full write-up — complete fun facts, ways to celebrate, and sourcing — on its own page.
Why does July have so many obscure holidays?
A surprising number of July's holidays anchor to real, dated history — the Apollo 11 landing, the Roswell incident's alleged date, Thoreau's birthday, the first Penguin paperback, and even a small-town Pennsylvania rain bet running unbroken since 1878. It's also, unsurprisingly, the most dessert- and drink-heavy stretch of the calendar, matching the actual peak of American summer.
How to use this guide
Holidays are grouped by date below. Each entry gets a short original write-up — not a repeat of the fact sheet — plus a link to the full holiday page if you want the deeper dive: complete fun facts, ways to celebrate, and sourcing.
July 1
🍦 Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day
Some of the more extreme documented ice cream flavors include lobster, garlic, bacon, and even haggis. Early Chinese versions of frozen dessert involved freezing milk and rice directly in snow, a far cry from a modern soft-serve machine. Full holiday page →
😂 International Joke Day
No documented founder or origin, despite being one of the more widely observed “unofficial” holidays on the calendar. The health case is real, though — laughter measurably reduces stress hormones. Full holiday page →
July 2
🤔 I Forgot Day
A deliberately low-stakes holiday — no real tradition beyond acknowledging something you forgot and laughing about it instead of getting frustrated. Full holiday page →
👽 World UFO Day
Timed to the anniversary of the alleged 1947 Roswell incident, one of the most famous UFO claims in American history. The acronym itself has an official origin story — the U.S. Air Force coined “UFO” in 1953, replacing the earlier term “flying saucer.” Full holiday page →
July 3
🍫 National Chocolate Wafer Day
The word “wafer” comes from the same Old French root, gaufre, that also produced “waffle” — both originally describing a flat cake pressed with a pattern. Its most iconic modern use is the icebox cake. Full holiday page →
🫘 National Eat Your Beans Day
Beans have been cultivated for at least 7,000 years, making them one of the older continuously farmed foods still eaten daily. Full holiday page →
July 4
🍖 National Barbecued Spareribs Day
Spareribs come from the belly section of the pig, the lower part of the rib cage, which is why they carry more fat and connective tissue — exactly what makes them so tender after a long, slow cook. Full holiday page →
🍳 Sidewalk Egg Frying Day
The physics rarely cooperate — reliably frying an egg needs a sustained surface temperature above 158°F, a threshold most sidewalks don't actually reach even on the hottest July days. Full holiday page →
July 5
🍎 National Apple Turnover Day
The name describes the technique exactly — folding one half of the dough over the filling to meet the other half, making it a category of hand pie rather than something structurally distinct. Full holiday page →
😵 Workaholics Day
The word “workaholic” was coined in 1971 by psychologist Wayne Oates in a book literally titled “Confessions of a Workaholic.” Research suggests workaholics tend to be less productive over time than people who maintain reasonable hours. Full holiday page →
July 6
💋 International Kissing Day
The record for longest kiss stands at 58 hours, 35 minutes, and 58 seconds, set by a couple in Thailand in 2013. A single passionate kiss can engage up to 34 facial muscles and 112 postural muscles at once. Full holiday page →
🍗 National Fried Chicken Day
The technique's Southern American roots trace to a genuine cultural fusion — Scottish immigrants' frying traditions combined with West African culinary practices brought by enslaved people. Full holiday page →
July 7
🗣️ Tell the Truth Day
No documented founder or formal origin, unusual for a holiday built around honesty specifically. The legal system's own version of the same idea — “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” — is one of the oldest standardized oaths still in use. Full holiday page →
🍫 World Chocolate Day
Widely believed to mark chocolate's 17th-century introduction to Europe, though the exact anniversary is debated. It took roughly 400 cacao beans to make just one pound of chocolate. Full holiday page →
July 8
😂 National SCUD Day
Founded in 2007 by Stephanie West Allen, a former lawyer turned mediator, who built the concept around real neuroscience research on conflict — the acronym stands for “Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama.” Full holiday page →
🎮 National Video Game Day
The first interactive electronic game built for a screen, “Tennis for Two,” dates to 1958 — decades before home consoles existed. The video game industry's global revenue now exceeds the film and music industries combined. Full holiday page →
July 9
🍪 National Sugar Cookie Day
Traces to Nazareth, Pennsylvania in the 1700s, where German Protestant settlers originally called it the “Nazareth Cookie” before the name simplified. Full holiday page →
👐 No Bra Day
There are actually two separate “No Bra Day” observances — this one on July 9th, and another on October 13th tied to Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which causes regular confusion online. Full holiday page →
July 10
🍍 National Piña Colada Day
Credited to bartender Ramon “Monchito” Marrero at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan in 1954, and formally declared Puerto Rico's national drink in 1978. Full holiday page →
🐻 Teddy Bear Picnic Day
The bear itself is named for Theodore Roosevelt, after a 1902 hunting trip where he famously refused to shoot a cornered bear cub. Full holiday page →
July 11
💖 Cheer Up the Lonely Day
Backed by real research showing that strong social connections can extend life expectancy by as much as 50%. Acts of kindness measurably release both oxytocin and dopamine in the giver. Full holiday page →
🏪 National 7-Eleven Day
The chain's first store opened in Dallas in 1927, originally an ice house selling milk, bread, and eggs. Before 1946 it operated as “Tote'm Stores”; the 7-Eleven name came directly from its then-novel 7am-to-11pm hours. Full holiday page →
July 12
🥧 National Pecan Pie Day
Pecans are native to North America, which makes pecan pie one of the genuinely distinctly American desserts on this calendar. It's also the official state pie of Texas. Full holiday page →
🌿 National Simplicity Day
Marks Henry David Thoreau's birthday, and his cabin at Walden Pond cost him just $28.12 to build — cheaper than a year's rent in nearby Cambridge at the time. His night in jail for refusing to pay a poll tax became the essay “Civil Disobedience,” which went on to influence Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Full holiday page →
July 13
🤓 Embrace Your Geekness Day
The word “geek” originally described circus performers known for biting the heads off live chickens — about as far from its modern meaning as an etymology gets. Full holiday page →
🍟 French Fries Day
Despite the name, fries are widely believed to have originated in Belgium, where locals fried potatoes as a fish substitute during winters when rivers froze over. Full holiday page →
July 14
🧀 National Mac and Cheese Day
Thomas Jefferson is credited with bringing the dish to America after encountering it in France, serving it at a White House dinner in 1802. Canadians consume 55% more boxed macaroni and cheese than Americans. Full holiday page →
🤯 Pandemonium Day
Built entirely around sanctioned, harmless disorder — reverse-day activities like wearing clothes backward or eating dessert before dinner, sometimes organized into deliberately chaotic “Chaos Parades.” Full holiday page →
July 15
🎁 Give Something Away Day
Backed by real psychology — researchers call the mood boost from giving the “helper's high,” and it applies as much to donating time as donating objects. Full holiday page →
🐛 Gummy Worm Day
Introduced in 1986 by German candy company Trolli, created as a direct follow-up to the original gummy bear's success back in 1922. Full holiday page →
🌭 National Hot Dog Day
Americans eat an estimated 20 billion hot dogs a year, and the name itself likely traces to a 1901 cartoon that depicted “dachshund sausages.” Chicago purists famously consider ketchup a genuine faux pas. Full holiday page →
July 16
🐹 Guinea Pig Appreciation Day
The date comes from a literal alphabet code set by founder Caroline Lane: G is the 7th letter (for July), P is the 16th (for the day). Despite the name, guinea pigs aren't pigs and aren't from Guinea — they're Andean rodents. Full holiday page →
🌽 National Corn Fritters Day
Fried dough dishes similar to fritters date back to Roman times, making the format ancient even if corn fritters specifically are a Southern American staple. Full holiday page →
July 17
🍑 Peach Ice Cream Day
Particularly tied to the American South, where peaches are both a major crop and a defining summer flavor. Full holiday page →
🤣 World Emoji Day
The date was chosen for a genuinely specific reason: July 17th is what displays on Apple's calendar emoji (📅), a detail Emojipedia founder Jeremy Burge noticed and built the holiday around in 2014. Full holiday page →
July 18
🥄 Caviar Day
True caviar, by strict definition, only refers to salt-cured roe from sturgeon specifically — everything else is technically just “roe.” Full holiday page →
🍋 National Sour Candy Day
The sour sensation comes from actual edible acids — citric, malic, tartaric, fumaric — not just sugar concentration. Sour Patch Kids started in 1970s Canada under a completely different name: Mars Men. Full holiday page →
July 19
🍹 National Daiquiri Day
Invented in late-19th-century Cuba by American mining engineer Jennings Cox, named for the mining town where he worked. Ernest Hemingway's version of choice was a double served without sugar. Full holiday page →
😛 Stick Out Your Tongue Day
The gesture carries wildly different meanings across cultures — an insult in much of the West, but historically a greeting in parts of Tibet. Full holiday page →
July 20
🍭 Lollipop Day
The word is credited to George Smith, who patented the first automatic lollipop-making machine in 1908 and named the result “Lolly Pop.” Full holiday page →
🌕 Moon Day
Marks the exact 1969 Apollo 11 landing, and Neil Armstrong's famous first words were delivered with a small grammatical gap — he intended “one small step for a man,” but the “a” was lost in transmission or speech. Full holiday page →
July 21
🍰 Lamington Day
Often called Australia's unofficial national cake — squares of sponge dipped in chocolate sauce and rolled in desiccated coconut. Its invention is usually credited to Lord Lamington, Queensland's governor from 1896 to 1901. Full holiday page →
🍟 National Junk Food Day
The term “junk food” was popularized in 1972 by Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Full holiday page →
July 22
🌴 National Hammock Day
Hammocks originated with Indigenous peoples of Central and South America, designed to lift sleepers off the ground, away from insects and small animals. Full holiday page →
🐀 Rat Catcher’s Day
Tied directly to the medieval Pied Piper legend, which places the rat-clearing of Hamelin on this exact date in 1284. Full holiday page →
July 23
👵 National Gorgeous Grandma Day
Created in 1984 by author Alice Solomon, who coined the term specifically to challenge the “little old lady” stereotype attached to aging women. The holiday explicitly doesn't require actually being a grandmother to apply. Full holiday page →
🍦 Vanilla Ice Cream Day
Vanilla is the world's second most expensive spice after saffron, a direct result of how labor-intensive its cultivation is. Full holiday page →
July 24
🫂 Cousins Day
The word “cousin” traces through Old French back to the Latin consobrinus, originally meaning specifically a child of a mother's sister. Full holiday page →
🍹 National Tequila Day
Legally, tequila can only be made from blue agave, and only in specific regions of Mexico, mostly Jalisco — a Denomination of Origin protection similar to Champagne's. Full holiday page →
July 25
🎠 Carousel Day
Marks William Schneider's 1871 U.S. patent for the carousel, though the word itself comes from the Italian carosello, originally describing a 17th-century cavalry training exercise. Full holiday page →
🍷🧀 National Wine and Cheese Day
Winemaking dates back to roughly 6000 BCE in Georgia, and cheesemaking to about 5500 BCE in Poland — meaning the pairing itself has a combined history stretching back well over 7,000 years. Full holiday page →
July 26
🎯 All or Nothing Day
No documented founder or origin — a purely conceptual holiday built around the idea of committing fully to a decision rather than hedging. Full holiday page →
🤗 National Aunt and Uncle Day
The words “aunt” and “uncle” both trace through Old French to Latin roots, originally referring specifically to a parent's sister and brother. Full holiday page →
July 27
🍮 National Crème Brûlée Day
The name translates literally from French as “burnt cream,” though England's “burnt cream” and Spain's “crema catalana” both predate the French version enough to make its true origin genuinely disputed. Full holiday page →
🪴 Take your Houseplant for a Walk Day
The premise has a real basis — natural outdoor light covers a fuller spectrum than most indoor lighting, genuinely benefiting photosynthesis. Full holiday page →
July 28
🍫 National Milk Chocolate Day
The first solid milk chocolate was created in 1875 by Swiss confectioner Daniel Peter, using Henri Nestlé's condensed milk. Milton Hershey's 1900 Hershey's Bar made it affordable and widely available in the US. Full holiday page →
🌊 National Waterpark Day
Created in 2017 by Kalahari Resorts, deliberately timed to July as the hottest month of the year. The format traces to 1977's Wet 'n Wild Orlando — while New Jersey's notoriously chaotic Action Park, opened a year later, became almost as famous for its danger as for its thrills. Full holiday page →
July 29
🍝 National Lasagna Day
The word “lasagna” originally referred to the cooking pot itself, not the pasta sheets. Regional Italian versions vary sharply: Bolognese uses green pasta and béchamel, while Southern versions lean on ricotta and tomato sauce. Full holiday page →
🌧️ Rain Day
A genuinely unbroken local tradition in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania since 1878, where it's reportedly rained on this exact date well over 100 times. Past celebrity participants in the town's rain-or-shine wager have included Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, and Fred Rogers. Full holiday page →
July 30
🍰 National Cheesecake Day
Cheesecake's documented history goes back to ancient Greece, reportedly served to athletes at the first Olympic Games in 776 BC. Full holiday page →
📚 Paperback Book Day
Marks Penguin Books' 1935 launch of the modern paperback, an idea founder Allen Lane got after finding only poor-quality, overpriced books at a train station bookstall. The first ten titles cost sixpence each and were color-coded by genre. Full holiday page →
July 31
🥑 National Avocado Day
Botanically classified as a single-seeded berry, not a vegetable. The word traces to the Aztec ahuacatl, which also meant “testicle,” a fairly direct reference to its shape. Full holiday page →
🍰 National Raspberry Cake Day
Raspberries are technically aggregate fruits, made up of dozens of tiny individual drupelets each carrying its own seed. Despite red being the default, the plant also produces black, purple, and golden varieties. Full holiday page →
Frequently asked questions
How many obscure holidays are there in July?
63, spread across all 31 days.
What's the most historically significant holiday in July?
Moon Day (Jul 20), marking the actual 1969 Apollo 11 landing — one of the most well-documented events any holiday on this calendar is tied to.
Are there a lot of food holidays in July?
Yes — National Mac and Cheese Day, National Lasagna Day, National Hot Dog Day, National Cheesecake Day, and a whole cluster of ice cream and cocktail days make up a large share of the month.
Where can I find the full history and fun facts for each holiday?
Every holiday name in this guide links to its own dedicated page with a longer write-up, sourced fun facts, and ideas for how to celebrate.
About this guide
This guide is part of the Obscure Holiday Calendar project — the same database that powers the iOS and Android apps and the individual holiday pages on this site. It exists to give a single, readable overview of an entire month at once, instead of requiring 63 separate page visits.