| Monkey Day | |
|---|---|
| Also called | International Monkey Day Day of the Monkey |
| Observed by | People worldwide, including: Canada Germany Mexico Puerto Rico United Kingdom United States |
| Date | December 14 |
| Celebrations | Costume parties, Art shows, Zoo visits, Webcomic marathons |
Monkey Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated internationally on every year December 14.[1][2][3]
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The holiday was started in 2000 when founder Casey Sorrow jokingly scribbled Monkey Day on a friend's calendar,[4][5] and first celebrated by Lansing residents and art students at Michigan State University.[5] It gained notoriety when Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin's own comic strip, Fetus-X, began promoting it online along with other cartoonists.[6] Since then, Monkey Day has been celebrated internationally, across countries like the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom.[4][7][8]
Hallmark Cards describes it as the "one day when monkey business is actually encouraged."[9] The holiday is primarily celebrated with costume parties intended to help draw attention to issues related to simians, including medical research, animal rights, and evolution.[10] Often there are competitions to see who has the best costumes, who can act like a monkey the longest, or speed knitting of monkey dolls.[7][11] The holiday cuts across religious boundaries and provides opportunities to share monkey stories and contemplate our simian relatives.[12][13] Other Monkey Day activities include going on shopping sprees for Paul Frank "Julius the Monkey" fashions, eating Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey ice cream, and spending the day at the zoo.[14]
In 2005, Peter Jackson's King Kong was released on the fifth anniversary of Monkey Day.[4]
In 2008, the official Monkey Day celebration was a silent art auction to benefit Chimps Inc., which included paintings from chimps Jackson and Kimie, residents of the Chimps Inc. primate sanctuary.[15][16] The Biddle Gallery in Detroit also celebrated Monkey Day in 2008 with an annual Monkey Day art sale that included a free banana with each purchase.[17][18]
There has been an annual Monkey Day Web Comic Marathon since 2004 with comics including Rob Balder's PartiallyClips, David Malki's Wondermark, Eric Millikin's Fetus-X, and Sorrow's own Feral Calf.[6][19] Sorrow also maintains a comprehensive "Monkeys in the News" blog with stories on topics like monkey attacks, monkey smuggling, and monkey science.[20]