Literary Holidays to Celebrate All Year Long - 2018

It's the new year, and we're filling up our calendars with literary holidays! I love planning almost as much as I love celebrating, so I've updated last years's list of holidays to celebrate all year long, so I can get my 2018 calendar in order. If you have more literature-based or library-friendly holidays, please let me know and I will add them in.

Please note that, while many of these holidays are officially sponsored by (and you can purchase posters and such from) the American Library Association, many of them are made up just for fun, and there is no official, cohesive, governing body. As such, you can celebrate them however you like. I have linked to official sources where I was able.

January 

National Braille Literacy Month (Louis Braille was born 1/4/1809)

1/18 – Winnie the Pooh Day (A.A.Milne’s Birthday)

1/19 – Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday

1/25 - Burns Supper/Burns Night (to celebrate Scottish poet Robert Burns)

1/29 – “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe is first published

February 

Love Your Library Month

2/3 – Take Your Child to the LibraryDay (first Saturday of February)

2/14 – Library Lovers’ Day2/16 - Reading Rainbow Day (LeVar Burton's birthday)

March

First full week – Return of Borrowed Books Week

3/2 - Read Across America (Dr. Seuss’s Birthday)

3/4 – National Grammar Day

3/4-10 (First full week of March) – Read an eBook Week

3/5-10 Teen Tech Week

3/15 – The Ides of March (Julius Caesar is stabbed, 44 B.C.)

3/16 – Freedom of Information Day

3/25 - Gondorian New Year - the day that the One Ring was destroyed in the fires of Mount Doom

April 

National Poetry Month

4/1 - Hatching Day - celebrate the Dragonriders of Pern series on Anne McCaffrey's birthday by enjoying bubbly pies and coffee!

4/2 – International Children’s Book Day (Hans Christian Anderson’s Birthday)

4/4 - 1984 Day (the day that the protagonist of the book started writing his diary)

4/8-14 – National Library Week

4/12 (Thursday of National Library Week) – Celebrate Teen Literature Day

4/10 – National Library Workers’ Day

4/12 – D.E.A.R. Day (Beverly Cleary’s birthday)

4/18 – National Columnists Day (in memory of well-known columnist and 1944 Pulitzer Prize winner Ernie Pyle, who died in WWII)

4/21-28 Money Smart Week

4/23 – Shakespeare’s birthday

4/23 – World Book Day

4/26 – Poem in Your Pocket Day

4/27 – National Tell a Story Day

4/30 – Children’s Book Day/El Dia de los Ninos

May

4/30-5/6 Children’s Book Week

5/2 - Harry Potter Day (May 2 was the day of the Battle of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series; many also celebrate July 31, which is both Harry's and J.K. Rowling's birthdays)

5/4 – Intergalactic Star Wars Day ("May the Fourth be with you.")

5/5 – Free Comic Book Day (first Saturday in May)

5/9 – Peter Pan Day (James M. Barrie’s birthday)

5/20 – Eliza Doolittle Day 
5/21 – National Readathon Day

5/25 – Towel Day (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Day)

June 

LGBTBook Month, Audiobook Appreciation Month

6/12 – Anne Frank’s birthday (on which she received her diary)

6/16 - Bloomsday (the day on which most of James Joyce's Ulysses, whose main character is Leopold Bloom, takes place)

6/19 – National Garfield the Cat Day (strip is first published, 1978)

Bonus: Any beautiful Wednesday in June can be Mrs. Dalloway Day

July 

Read an Almanac Month

July 4-6 - National Tom Sawyer Days

July 10 - Clerihew Day (in honor of the poet Edmund Clerihew, who invented a fun style of poetry)

7/15-21 (third week of July) – Hemingway Days takes place in the Florida Keys

7/30 – National Paperback Book Day

7/31 – Harry Potter Day (July 31is both Harry's and J.K. Rowling's; many also celebrate May 2, which was the day of the Battle of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter series)

August

8/9 – Book Lovers’ Day

8/20 - H.P. Lovecraft's birthday

September

 Library Card Sign-Up Month, Be Kind to Writers and Editors Month

9/6 – Read a Book Day

9/8 – International Literacy Day

9/22 – Hobbit Day

9/22 – Dear Diary Day

Last week of Sept. – Banned BooksWeek

Wednesday of Banned Books Week – Banned Websites Awareness Day

October 

National Book Month (no longer sponsored by the National Book Foundation, but we can celebrate anyway)

10/6 – Mad Hatter Day (because his hat says 10/6)

10/8-13 (week of Columbus Day) – Teen Read Week

10/16 – Dictionary Day (Noah Webster’s Birthday)

10/15-20 Friends of Libraries Week

November 

Picture Book Month, National Family Literacy Month, National Novel Writing Month

11/1 – National Family Literacy Day

11/6 – National Non-Fiction Day (it's "national" in England; let's spread it internationally!) 

11/10 - Neil Gaiman's birthday

11/14 – Astrid Lindgren’s birthday (author of Pippi Longstocking)

11/15 – I Love to Write Day

11/18 – High-Five a Librarian Day

Third Saturday of November – International Games Day

December 

Read a New Book Month

12/1 – Sherlock Holmes Day (“A Study in Scarlet” was said to have been first published 12/1/1887 - this is actually in dispute, but we can still celebrate)

12/16 – Jane Austen’s birthday

12/24 - Jolabokaflod - the "Christmas Book Flood" is an Icelandic tradition, in which people open gifts of books on Christmas Eve, and retire to bed early to read them.