January 31st honors everything backward. National Backward Day is an opportunity to reverse our ways, our direction or simply our shirt. Dessert for breakfast, perhaps? There are many ways to celebrate this fun day, so just let your imagination be your guide.
This day is very popular with school-aged kids, but there is no age limit on who can participate in all of the backward fun. So EVERYONE, let’s have some fun!!
- Backward Day has a really long history, far older than the name of the holiday itself. In almost every culture there came a time of year when all the societal rules got turned on their head. Rome had Saturnalia, a day when all social norms were turned on their head. Gambling was no longer forbidden, and the masters took the day serving their slaves at the high table. During no other time was free speech actually permitted, especially amongst the slaves, but during Saturnalia, all manner of insult was allowed.
- Sarah Nicole Miller and Megan Emily Scott created Backwards Day on January 29, 1961. They were thinking about making arts and crafts, while milking cows on the Miller family farm, when the idea struck them. Later that evening, they sat down and made the rules. The idea got out amid the community, and on January 31, 1962, the first Backwards Day occurred. The two women were walking down the street, when they saw all the townspeople doing things backwards!
- Eat dessert first.
- Eat breakfast for dinner. Or dinner for breakfast.
- Wear something backward.
- Call people by their last name.
- Wear your socks inside out, or on top of your pants.
- Stressed is Desserts spelled backwards
- This music video was filmed as the band did everything backward, and then played that in reverse, and… well, just watch and see. It’s totally rad. (YouTube/Warner Brothers Recods)
Sources:
YouTube/Warner Brothers Records
