National Nothing Day 2024, celebrated since 1973, is a day where people are encouraged to do nothing. The holiday’s simplicity and lack of pomp make it a thought-provoking question: are you doing something with nothing as the activity? It raises the question of whether doing nothing is truly doing something.
HISTORY OF NATIONAL NOTHING DAY
In 1972, journalist Harold Pullman Coffin proposed the observance of National Nothing Day on January 16 by doing nothing. The following year, National Nothing Day was included in “Chase’s Calendar of Events,” a publication that has documented annual events in print since the 1950s. Coffin’s “National Nothing Foundation” sponsors National Nothing Day. Unsurprisingly, no information is available about that organisation. According to its name, it lacks even a website.
Here is a fact that may suggest the concept of “nothing.” Once every seven years, Martin Luther King Day falls on the third Monday of January. The event coincides with National Nothing Day, which contradicts the notion that there is nothing going on annually on National Nothing Day. Since Martin Luther King Jr. is commemorated for his nonviolent activism during the Civil Rights Movement, many may refute the notion of nothingness on this day.
Not only this, but there are additional days that are celebrated in contrast to this concept of nothingness. In an opposition to National Nothing Day, the Realist Society of Canada (RSC) has a religious holiday called There’s Always Been Something Day, pronounced THABS, which is dedicated on July 8 to the celebration of the “realisation that if there was ever nothing, there would be nothing now.”
Philosophers and authors have debated the study of “nothing” throughout history. Because it begs the question, what is nothing? To answer the question of nothing, one must determine nothing’s significance. Even the true nature of “nothingness” in outer space causes experts to disagree, as many contend that even a space devoid of all matter is not nothing, as quantum particles exist in space even in the absence of gravity.
On National Nothing Day, promotion of the day is somewhat contradictory, as the day is intended to be a “un-event,” meaning that it should not be viewed as an event and refers to a thing of no significance, consequence, or interest.
5 AMAZING FACTS ABOUT NOTHINGNESS
We emerged from it.
According to the Christian faith, God created the universe “ex nihilo,” or “out of nothing.”
Or did we?
Nothingness can be a meditative state, a characteristic of reality, or an examination of existence in Buddhism.
No way, Jose
Victor Hugo writes in “Les Misérables”: “There is no such thing as nothingness, and zero does not exist. All things are something. “Everything is nothing”
There is no such thing as empty space. It contains hydrogen and helium plasma as well as cosmic forces.
It is only about you.
Metallica’s members cannot recall the original inspiration for their song “Nothing Else Matters,” so they now sing it about their fans, since nothing else matters to them but them.
NATIONAL NOTHING DAY DATES
| Year | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | January 16 | Monday |
| 2024 | January 16 | Tuesday |
| 2025 | January 16 | Thursday |
| 2026 | January 16 | Friday |
| 2027 | January 16 | Saturday |
Idaho Human Rights Day 2024: Date, History, and Facts about Martin Luther King Jr
