January 17th - Pig Day

HOW I CELEBRATED

Pig Day's celebrations seemed obvious to me when I looked ahead at the beginning of the week to see what holidays I would soon be facing. A screening of the 1973 classic animated adaptation of E.B. White's "Charlotte's Web" and for a bit of twisted irony, a pork dinner. Though I have not yet supped on the pork chops, they are set out to thaw and their consumption is imminent. Only moments ago did my mom, baby sister (who fell asleep around the third song) and I finish watching the Hanna Barbera feature, and now seemed like the time right time to blog, so here you go.

Along with the aforementioned movie, this morning brought a minor epiphany of sorts on a further pig day celebration, and I also watched (via my DVD box set of the first three series) the episode "The Happy Event" of the 1970s BBC sitcom 'The Good Life' (retitled to 'Good Neighbors' for its U.S. airing to avoid confusion with a similarly titled series over here). This episode, like the film I watched, deals with the struggle to keep a runt pig alive, albiet under highly different circumstances, and in a vastly different manner.

HOW OTHERS MIGHT CELEBRATE

If it were Spring, or if one has access to a farm so that they can visit an actual pig, that would be a good option. Same with reading a book or story with at least one pig as a central character (or if it's more convenient, watching an adaptation thereof). Play with stuffed animal pigs, wear a pig mask, whatever strikes your fancy that is swine related is fine. If you choose to honour a police officer, however, make sure they have a good sense of humour first as I don't want any of my readers being jailed on account of me.

HISTORICAL/CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

This is a redundant holiday since March 1st is actually an official pig related holiday (National Pig Day), and seems to be a made up one. However, I wasn't able to find any other well-celebratable holidays on this date, and I don't wish to make up too many, so I'll just have to attempt to actually visit a farm and/or read 'Animal Farm' in March.

UNOFFICIAL THEME SONG

I briefly considered "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" by Pink Floyd for the spot, but being that I avoided Orwell's 'Animal Farm' for today's celebrations as explained above, it seems more appropriate to pick a song from the animated 'Charlotte's Web' for the song du jour. With that said, I have selected "Zuckerman's Famous Pig" from the Sherman Bros' score to the film as a proper celebratory number for today.

FOOTNOTES

-This is the first potentially redundant holiday I have chosen to celebrate along with the more properly ordained version on my calendar.

Other Holidays and observances on this date include:
-Zirgu Diena in Ancient Latvia
-Benjamin Franklin's Birthday
-Shari Lewis's Birthday
-Catholic Feast Days for St. Anthony, Bl. Amelbert, Sulpitius the Pious, Mildgytha, and the Venerable Anthony the Great (Byzantine Catholicism)