On This Day: January 7th … Strange Holidays

National Old Rock Day

National Bobblehead Day

National Tempura Day

Okay, seems we have a couple quirky ones here. Let’s investigate and see what is going on with rocks and a bouncing head.

National Bobblehead Day

For over 100 years, bobbleheads have been entertaining and fascinating people and collectors. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Bobbleheads commemorate iconic teams, movies, and cartoon characters. Individually, they represent some of our most exciting athletes or thrilling television and movie characters.

Early bobbleheads, known as bobbers or nodders, developed from Germany. They took root in the United States pop culture in the 1950s and 60s. Bobbleheads resurged in the late 1990s when professional sports teams began using them as promotional items. Today, as both toys and collectibles, bobbleheads continue to amuse and captivate people.

This is a first for me as I never knew about this, but The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum submitted National Bobblehead Day in December 2014. On November 18, 2014, the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum was announced. The museum opened in 2016 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and houses the world’s largest collection of bobbleheads. The building houses a tribute to the best of bobbleheads with a hall of fame and many exhibits related to the history and making of bobbleheads.

The Registrar at National Day Calendar proclaimed the day to be observed on January 7th annually in accordance with the policies set forth to designate a National Day.

This could be a fun thing to see in your travels.

While in Milwaukee, check out the brewery, too.

National Tempura Day

National Tempura Day encourages us to celebrate with a dish made with a tempura batter. This Japanese fare is made up of either seafood or vegetables dipped in batter and deep-fried.

Portuguese Jesuit missionaries introduced the recipe for tempura to Japan during the sixteenth century (around 1549). Many believe Portuguese Jesuit Tokugawa Ieyasu, founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan, loved tempura. Since the Genroku era (September 1688 – March 1704), tempura was traditionally a very popular food eaten at street vendors called “yatai” or food trailer.

Today, chefs all over the world include tempura dishes on their menus. They use a wide variety of different batters and ingredients, including nontraditional broccoli, zucchini, and asparagus. Chefs also dip dry fruits in a tempura batter, too. Some American restaurants serve chicken and cheeses, particularly mozzarella, in a tempura-style.

For sushi lovers, a more recent variation of tempura sushi provides a new way of enjoying the delicacy. Shushi chefs tempura fry entire pieces of delicate sushi and serve it on a beautiful platter.

National Old Rock Day

For all you rock fanatics, this isn’t to be confused with International Rock Day, which is July 13th, so don’t get upset with me, you’ll have your turn when it comes time.

This unofficial holiday encourages people to acknowledge, celebrate, and learn more about old rocks and fossils.

We all know a rock is a rock. It’s a solid mass made of minerals or mineral-like substances. Used for a variety of purposes throughout the history as tools, musical instruments, weapons and for mining - rocks form the outermost layer of Earth.

While natural processes—volcanic eruptions and erosion continually help create rocks on Earth, old rocks are especially important to those who study the Earth and its history.

Old rocks hold many answers to the mysteries of Earth's formation. They can tell scientists about natural events that played a role in the formation of the rocks and the effects that event had on other life forms in the area.

Old rocks can also sometimes hold fossils—the preserved remains of animals, plants, and other organisms. These fossils can help scientists find out the kind of flora and fauna that existed in the past and what may have caused them to evolve or go extinct.

Geologists date old rocks using a technique called radiometric dating or radioactive dating. The process involves looking at the decay of radioactive elements available in rocks. The oldest rock of terrestrial origin to be dated using this method is a zircon found in the Jack Hills of Australia. Scientists estimate that the rock could be as old as 4.4 billion years.

Next time you pick up a rock, ask yourself, “I wonder how old this is?” Or—look at it and toss it back on the ground. Your choice.

More strange holidays are coming!