The new year arrives on Wednesday, and it should be a dream. The 2021 US presidential election, the launch of Mars Rover and the Summer Olympics in Japan will be held.
There will be milestones to mark: the 400th anniversary of the arrival of pilgrims to the Mayflower, the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 50th celebration of Earth Day.
Wascally wabbit Bugs Bunny will turn 80, the Beatles’ “Hey Jude” will be 50 and Band-Aids will mark a century of boo-boos improvements.
Significantly, 2021 is a leap year, meaning rapper Ja Rule and motivational speaker Tony Robbins can celebrate their birthdays on February 29th.
The leap year also means that all holidays not set from March to December will change day. So, the weekday Christmas of 2020 will move to a long weekend Friday of 2021.
The leap year is not the only peculiarity of this year’s calendar. There is some debate about whether to start a new decade. Read on for more information.
Highlights of the calendar
We did a few leaves on the calendar to see what pop culture festivals and occasions are reserved and where they will fall during the year. Here are some highlights.
Gener
* 5: Golden Globe Awards (Sunday)
* 20: ML King Day (Monday)
* 26: Grammy Awards (Sunday)
February
* 2: Groundhog Day (Sunday)
* 2: Super Bowl (Sunday)
* 9: Academy Awards (Sunday)
* 14: Valentine’s Day (Friday)
* 17: President’s Day (Monday)
* 25: Mardi Gras (Tuesday)
* 26: Ash Wednesday
March
* 8: daylight saving time begins (Sunday)
* 14: Pine Day (Saturday)
* 17: St. Patrick’s Day (Tuesday)
* 19: Spring Equinox (Thursday)
April
* 1: April Fools’ Day (Wednesday)
* 5: Palm Sunday
* 10: Good Friday
* 12: Easter Sunday
* 15: Tax Day (Wednesday)
* 22: Earth Day (Wednesday)
May
* 2: Free Comic Book Day (Saturday)
* 4: Star Wars Day (Monday)
* 5: Five of May (Tuesday)
* 10: Mother’s Day (Sunday)
* 16: Armed Forces Day (Saturday)
* 25: Memorial Day (Monday)
June
* 6: D-day anniversary (Saturday)
* 14: Flag Day (Sunday)
* 19: Juneteenth (Friday)
* 20: summer solstice (Saturday)
* 21: Father’s Day (Sunday)
July
* 4: Independence Day (Saturday)
August
* 7: Hamilton County School Registration Day (Friday)
* 12: first full day of school (Wednesday)
September
* 7: Labor Day (Monday)
* 11: Patriot Day (Friday)
* 22: Autumn Equinox (Tuesday)
October
* 12: Columbus Day (Monday)
* 31: Halloween (Saturday)
of November
* 1: summer time ends (Sunday)
* 3: election day (Tuesday)
* 11: Veterans Day (Wednesday)
* 26: Thanksgiving (Thursday)
December
* 21: winter solstice (Monday)
* 25: Christmas (Friday)
Every day of vacation
You won’t find them on a standard calendar, but there are several websites that show special observations that occur on a given day, week, or month, such as Peanut Butter Lover’s Day (March 1) or the month of root vegetables and exotic fruits (December).
Commemorating all these special events will keep you busy. The website nationaltoday.com lists 87 holidays just in January.
To put it bluntly, we see a missed opportunity in not combining National Bean Day (January 6) and National Bubble Bath Day (January 8) in the same 24 hours.
Leap Year
Transfer days are additional days that are added to the calendar to help it synchronize with the Earth’s orbit around the sun and the passage of seasons. The Earth’s orbit takes approximately 365.25 days (or more accurately, 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 45 seconds, according to timeanddate.com).
The .25 creates the need for a leap year every four years. If a transfer day were not added on February 29 almost every four years, almost six hours of the calendar would be lost each year. After 100 years, the calendar would be off for 24 days.
Julius Caesar first added the leap days to the Julian calendar in 46 BC on the advice of Sosigenes, an Alexandrian astronomer, according to www.earthsky.com.
This is where it gets complicated. Transfer years only occur in years divisible by 400. Therefore, 2000 was a transfer year, but 1900 was not.
New decade, right?
There is some debate as to whether 2021 marks the beginning of a new decade. People in the Farmers Almanac say no.
They say the decades start with the year ending at number 1 and end with a 0.
“For a decade that starts,” they explain, “we have to start with the year ending with 1 (2021) and end with 10, or in terms of chronology, a year ending with 0 (2030).
Birthdays
* January 16: 100th anniversary of the ban
* January 19: 75th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima
* April 22: 50th Earth Day
* April 30: 75th anniversary of the death of Adolf Hitler by suicide
* May 8: 75th anniversary of VE Day (Victory in Europe) during World War II
* May 12: 200th anniversary of the birth of English nurse Florence Nightingale
* May 15: 80th Anniversary of the Opening of the First McDonald’s Restaurant in San Bernardino, California
* May 15: 80th anniversary of the first sale of nylon stockings in the US
* June 26: 75th anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Charter in San Francisco by representatives of 50 countries (the UN was created on October 24)
* July 3: 35th anniversary of the launch in the United States of “Back to the Future”
* July 27: 80th anniversary of the first appearance of Bugs Bunny in the Warner Bros. cartoon “A Wild Hare.”
* August 2: 30th anniversary of the start of the first Gulf War
* August 6: 75th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima during World War II
* August 9: 75th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing during World War II
* August 14: 75th anniversary of VJ Day, when Japan announced its unconditional surrender, ending World War II in the Pacific (the war officially ended on September 2)
* September 17: 50th anniversary of the death of rock musician Jimi Hendrix
* October 2: 35th anniversary of the death of actor Rock Hudson
* October 29: 75th anniversary of the sale of the first commercially successful pen in the United States
* November 5: 85th anniversary of the launch of Parker Brothers’ Monopoly board game
* November 11: 400th anniversary of the Mayflower Pilgrims who arrived in Cape Cod and signed the Mayflower Pact (arrived in Plymouth Rock in December)
Source: https://www.mary evans.com/annivs.php? year = 2021
“For example, January 1, 2001 opened the 21st century and the beginning of the new millennium, just when the year 1 AD marked the beginning of the Christian era. Of course, many of us will remember the wild celebrations that were played at midnight on December 31, 1999. But was it a year too early? Yes! “
The editors even refer to a plot argument about “Seinfeld” in which Jerry mocks his neighbor and his enemy Newman for having a party to celebrate the “end” of the decade in 1999.
“And if at midnight on December 31, you think you’re celebrating the beginning of a new decade, guess what. As happened 20 years ago, you’ll start a year for the new decade will begin in 2021.” , say the editors of the Almanac.
The U.S. Naval Observatory, the agency that maintains the country’s main clock, takes a similar position. According to the astronomical dating system by which time is measured, the new millennium will begin in 2021.
Society in general seems to see things differently. Timing by Almanac and Naval Observatory standards may make scientific sense, but some say it’s rare to consider a year ending in zero as part of the previous decade. With this measure, the year 1990 would be considered part of the 80s. For many, this feels bad.
Konstantin Bikos, editor-in-chief of TimeandDate.com, told CNN that both definitions of the decade could be considered correct.
“There are two different ways to classify ten years,” he said. “It could be from the year ending at 0 to the year ending at 9 or the year ending at 1 until the year ending at 0.”
Regardless of where you camp, we are definitely starting a new year.
A whole season
These are the precise times to anticipate the official start of a new season, according to the U.S. Naval Observatory.
* Vernal Equinox (Spring): March 19, 11:49 PM EDT
* Summer Solstice: June 20, 5:43 PM EDT
* Fall Equinox: September 22, 9:30 am EDT
* Winter Solstice: December 21, 5:02 am EST
Superstitions
2021 will have two Fridays 13, in March and November.
Friday the 13th takes place at least once a year and can occur up to three times in a year. A Friday the 13th occurs during any month that begins on a Sunday.
Fun fact: Fear on Friday the 13th is known as friggatriskaidekaphobia.
Contact Lisa Denton at [email protected] or 423-757-6281.