The Complete Guide to September's Obscure Holidays
September eases out of summer with a genuinely broad mix — International Talk Like a Pirate Day and Hobbit Day sit next to National IT Professionals Day and a South African public holiday, while a real cluster of pie, pudding, and cheese-topped holidays carries the food theme into fall.
This guide walks through all 60, 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 September have so many obscure holidays?
September's holidays split between deep internet-era whimsy — Talk Like a Pirate Day, Wonderful Weirdos Day, Race Your Mouse-style novelty days — and some of the calendar's more substantive entries: Heritage Day carries real South African political history, World Rabies Day is timed to Louis Pasteur's death, and National Hug & High 5 Day was founded directly out of a personal 9/11 loss.
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.
September 1
📞 National Emma M. Nutt Day
Marks the exact 1878 hiring of the first female telephone operator in the US — before her, teenage boys held the job and were widely criticized for rudeness. Nutt reportedly stayed in the role for 33 years, into at least 1911. Full holiday page →
🤷♀️ No Rhyme or Reason Day
No documented founder, fittingly appropriate for a holiday celebrating things without explanation. Full holiday page →
September 2
🫐 National Blueberry Popsicle Day
The Popsicle itself was a 1905 accident, invented by 11-year-old Frank Epperson after he left a soda mixture with a stirring stick outside overnight and it froze. Full holiday page →
👂 National Pierce Your Ears Day
The oldest confirmed evidence of ear piercing comes from Ötzi the Iceman, a mummy dated to over 5,300 years old, whose stretched earlobe piercing measured 7 to 11 millimeters. Full holiday page →
September 3
🧀 National Welsh Rarebit Day
Despite the alternate name “Welsh Rabbit,” there's no rabbit in it at all — the dish is really just a thick, seasoned cheese sauce poured over toast. Full holiday page →
🏢 Skyscraper Day
Reportedly timed to architect Louis Sullivan's birthday, often credited as the “father of the skyscraper.” The safety elevator, invented by Elisha Otis in 1852, was just as essential to making tall buildings viable as steel-frame construction. Full holiday page →
September 4
🍰 Eat an Extra Dessert Day
No documented origin — the entire premise is simply permission to have a second dessert, with no specific type required. Full holiday page →
🌰 National Macadamia Nut Day
Native to the rainforests of eastern Australia, and notorious for having one of the hardest shells of any nut to crack. They're also genuinely toxic to dogs. Full holiday page →
September 5
⏰ Be Late for Something Day
Deliberately positioned as the opposite of National Punctuality Day, which falls back in January. Full holiday page →
🍕 National Cheese Pizza Day
Mozzarella remains the default topping cheese specifically because of its melt, stretch, and mild flavor. Modern pizza is widely traced back to Naples, Italy. Full holiday page →
September 6
🚀 Fight Procrastination Day
Chronic procrastination reportedly affects 15 to 20% of adults globally, and over 70% of college students at some point. Psychologists increasingly frame it as an emotional regulation issue. Full holiday page →
☕️🍦 National Coffee Ice Cream Day
Traces back to mid-18th-century Europe, with early recipes appearing in French cookbooks well before it became a mainstream American flavor. Full holiday page →
September 7
⛰️ National New Hampshire Day
New Hampshire was the very first of the thirteen colonies to formally declare independence from Britain, doing so on January 5, 1776 — six months before the Declaration of Independence. Full holiday page →
🍖 National Salami Day
The word comes from the Italian “salare,” meaning “to salt,” referencing the curing process that makes it shelf-stable. Full holiday page →
September 8
& National Ampersand Day
The ampersand is technically a ligature, a fusion of the Latin word “et” meaning “and,” compressed into a single symbol. It was officially treated as the 27th letter of the English alphabet until roughly the mid-19th century. Full holiday page →
⚖️ Pardon Day
The U.S. Constitution grants the President pardon power directly, in Article II, Section 2 — though a pardon restores rights without erasing the underlying conviction. Full holiday page →
September 9
🐻 National Teddy Bear Day
The bear's name traces to a 1902 political cartoon of Theodore Roosevelt refusing to shoot a cornered bear cub. The toy itself emerged almost simultaneously and independently in the US and Germany. Full holiday page →
🤪 Wonderful Weirdos Day
No widely documented founder or origin, though it's spread steadily across informal “day” calendars and social media. Full holiday page →
September 10
💡 National Anti-Junk Light Day
Founded in 2018 by TrueDark, a light-filtering eyewear company, deliberately echoing “junk food” to frame certain artificial light as something to consume in moderation. A 2016 global light-pollution atlas found the Milky Way hidden from more than a third of humanity. Full holiday page →
📺 National TV Dinner Day
Marks Swanson's original 1953 launch, whose first meal was turkey with cornbread dressing, peas, and sweet potatoes, served in an aluminum tray. Swanson reportedly sold over 10 million in the first year. Full holiday page →
September 11
🛏️ National Make Your Bed Day
Admiral William H. McRaven's widely shared 2014 commencement speech built an entire philosophy around this single habit. Researchers often describe it as a “keystone habit.” Full holiday page →
🤫 No News is Good News Day
The date functions as a deliberate counterpoint, encouraging a full digital detox from news and social media rather than more consumption. Full holiday page →
September 12
🥤 National Chocolate Milkshake Day
The word “milkshake” first appeared in print in 1885 — describing an alcoholic whiskey drink, nothing like the dessert it means today. Full holiday page →
🤗 National Hug & High 5 Day
Founded by Philadelphia's David Sylvester, who chose this date because his childhood mentor died in the World Trade Center on 9/11 — the day after, he says, is exactly when people most need a hug. Since then he's bicycled across multiple continents, hugging and high-fiving more than half a million people. Full holiday page →
September 13
🥠 Fortune Cookie Day
Despite the strong Chinese-American association, fortune cookies actually originated in Japan, where they were known as “tsujiura senbei” as early as the 19th century. Full holiday page →
👻 Supernatural Day
Marks the 2005 premiere of the show's pilot episode, which went on to run for 15 seasons and 327 episodes. The iconic '67 Impala nearly wasn't the car at all. Full holiday page →
September 14
🍩 National Cream-Filled Donut Day
The Boston cream version is directly modeled on Boston cream pie, borrowing its custard filling and chocolate glaze. Full holiday page →
🥪 National Eat a Hoagie Day
The name likely traces to Philadelphia's Hog Island shipyard, where workers nicknamed “hoggies” reportedly ate oversized sandwiches on the job. Philadelphia made it official in 1992. Full holiday page →
September 15
🎩 Make a Hat Day
The phrase “hat trick” actually comes from cricket, where a bowler taking three wickets on three consecutive balls traditionally earned a new hat. Full holiday page →
🌿 National Crème de Menthe Day
First commercially produced in 19th-century France, and its bright green color is entirely artificial — a genuinely colorless liqueur with food coloring added. Full holiday page →
September 16
🥑 National Guacamole Day
The word comes from the Aztec Nahuatl “ahuacamolli,” literally “avocado sauce.” Americans reportedly eat over 100 million pounds of avocados during Super Bowl weekend alone. Full holiday page →
🎨 National Play-Doh Day
Originally sold in the 1930s as a wallpaper cleaner, only rebranded as a children's toy in the mid-1950s. Its distinctive smell was officially copyrighted by Hasbro in 2018. Full holiday page →
September 17
🥟 National Apple Dumpling Day
Believed to have originated in England, evolving from earlier fruit-and-pastry dishes before becoming a defining American fall dessert. Full holiday page →
💻 National IT Professionals Day
Founded by SolarWinds, an IT management software company, with its first observance in 2015. Full holiday page →
September 18
🍔 National Cheeseburger Day
The exact origin is genuinely disputed, though Lionel Sternberger is often credited with serving one of the first in the mid-1920s at The Rite Spot in Pasadena. Full holiday page →
🥣 National Rice Krispie Treat Day
Invented in 1939 by Mildred Day and Malitta Jensen at Kellogg's own home economics department, originally created as a fundraiser for the Camp Fire Girls. Full holiday page →
September 19
🍮 Butterscotch Pudding Day
The “scotch” in butterscotch likely derives from “scotching,” meaning to score or cut into pieces — a common step in making hard candy. Full holiday page →
🏴☠️ International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Conceived in 1995 by two friends in Albany, Oregon as an inside joke, and the date was chosen simply because it was one of their ex-wives' birthdays. It only went global after Dave Barry wrote about it in 2002. Full holiday page →
September 20
🍕 National Pepperoni Pizza Day
Consistently ranked as America's most popular pizza topping. The word itself is an American invention — in Italian, “peperoni” actually refers to bell peppers. Full holiday page →
🧀 String Cheese Day
Gets its stringy texture from the pasta filata, or “spun paste,” method, where curds are heated and stretched until the proteins align into parallel fibers. Full holiday page →
September 21
⛳ Miniature Golf Day
The first American course, “Thistle Dhu,” opened in Pinehurst, North Carolina in 1916. Some early courses used unusual surfaces for their greens, including crushed cottonseed hulls. Full holiday page →
🍪 National Pecan Cookie Day
Pecans are the only major tree nut native to North America, and the trees themselves can keep producing nuts for more than 300 years. Full holiday page →
September 22
🎂 Hobbit Day
The date isn't arbitrary — September 22nd is explicitly named in the text as the shared birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. It anchors “Tolkien Week,” organized by the American Tolkien Society since 1978. Full holiday page →
🍦 Ice Cream Cone Day
Popularly traced to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, where an ice cream vendor reportedly ran out of dishes and partnered with a nearby waffle vendor. An earlier patent for a similar edible cup actually predates the fair. Full holiday page →
September 23
♟️ Checkers Day
Precursors to the game trace back to ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. In 2007, a computer program called Chinook formally “solved” checkers, proving perfect play from both sides always ends in a draw. Full holiday page →
🥧 National Great American Pot Pie Day
The concept goes back to ancient Roman and Greek cooking, where meat and vegetables were baked inside pastry long before it became American comfort food. Full holiday page →
September 24
🌍 Heritage Day
A South African public holiday with layered origins — long known in KwaZulu-Natal as Shaka Day, honoring the Zulu king's presumed 1828 death, before objections during 1994's holiday-list negotiations reframed it as a day for all South Africans' heritage. Since 2005 it's also National Braai Day, backed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Full holiday page →
🍒 National Cherries Jubilee Day
Reportedly created by the legendary chef Auguste Escoffier for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, which is where the name comes from. Full holiday page →
September 25
💥 National Comic Book Day
The first modern American comic book, “Famous Funnies,” launched in 1933, mostly reprinting existing newspaper strips. A copy of Action Comics #1 sold for over $6 million in 2024. Full holiday page →
🧀 National Quesadilla Day
The name literally combines the Spanish “queso” (cheese) and “tortilla.” In parts of central and southern Mexico, a quesadilla doesn't automatically include cheese unless you specifically ask for it. Full holiday page →
September 26
💌 Love Note Day
The oldest known love poem, inscribed on a Sumerian clay tablet, dates back roughly 4,000 years. Full holiday page →
🥞 National Pancake Day
Pancake-like foods date back to the Stone Age, made from little more than ground grains and water. Competitive “pancake races” have continued in Olney, England since 1445. Full holiday page →
September 27
🍫 National Chocolate Milk Day
Credited to Sir Hans Sloane, an Irish physician who encountered a cocoa drink in Jamaica in the late 1600s and added milk to make it more palatable back in Europe. Full holiday page →
🍲 National Corned Beef Hash Day
The word “hash” comes from the French “hacher,” meaning “to chop.” It saw a real surge in popularity during WWI and WWII rationing. Full holiday page →
September 28
🍺 National Drink Beer Day
Beer ranks as the third most popular drink worldwide, trailing only water and tea. Germany's Weihenstephan brewery, founded in 1040, is the world's oldest continuously operating brewery. Full holiday page →
🐕 World Rabies Day
Deliberately timed to the anniversary of Louis Pasteur's death, the scientist who helped develop the first effective rabies vaccine. Rabies is nearly 100% fatal once symptoms appear, but almost entirely preventable through vaccination. Full holiday page →
September 29
🍪 Biscotti Day
The name comes from the Latin “bis coctus,” literally “twice-baked,” describing exactly how they're made. Full holiday page →
☕ National Coffee Day
Coffee is the second-most traded commodity in the world, behind only crude oil. Coffee “beans” are technically seeds found inside a fruit called a coffee cherry. Full holiday page →
September 30
🫧 Chewing Gum Day
The oldest known chewing gum is a roughly 9,000-year-old piece of birch bark tar, discovered by an archaeology student in Finland. Modern gum traces to the 1860s. Full holiday page →
🍎 National Hot Mulled Cider Day
The practice of “mulling” — heating and spicing a drink — dates back centuries, tied historically to wassailing, the old English custom of visiting orchards in winter to toast the trees' health. Full holiday page →
Frequently asked questions
How many obscure holidays are there in September?
60, spread across all 30 days.
What's the most meaningful holiday in September?
National Hug & High 5 Day (Sep 12), founded by David Sylvester after his childhood mentor died in the World Trade Center on 9/11 — he's since hugged or high-fived more than half a million people across dozens of countries.
Are there a lot of food holidays in September?
Yes — National Cheeseburger Day, National Guacamole Day, National Pepperoni Pizza Day, National Coffee Day, and several pie and pudding 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 60 separate page visits.