How to get an official new holiday

January 23, 2007 4:54 PM

I see that today is National Pie Day. How does one go about getting a day declared an official day or holiday.

I don't really know that National Pie Day is an officially declared "day", but thinking about it made me curious about what it would take to do.

posted by EllenC to Law & Government (10 answers total)

Best answer: I thought Pie Day was 3/14? Oh, that's Pi Day.

You can convince your congressional representative to sponsor a resolution to make it an official day.
posted by Wet Spot at 5:01 PM on January 23, 2007

You get Congress or your state legislature (or city council, or...) to declare it one.

There was a great episode of the Michael Moore tv show TV Nation where they hired a lobbyist to get Congress to declare a day "TV Nation Day."
posted by raf at 5:12 PM on January 23, 2007

Response by poster: So if Congress does it, it's a national holiday; if it's the state legislature, a state holiday?
posted by EllenC at 5:17 PM on January 23, 2007

It's not a holiday, it's just a day. A special super fantastic wonderful day of pie, but not a holiday.
posted by acorncup at 5:26 PM on January 23, 2007

The publisher I do work for is so full of geeks they actually CELEBRATE Pi Day by having a potluck of all round foods. Oh how I wish I was kidding.

I went to art school to avoid math.
posted by miss lynnster at 5:44 PM on January 23, 2007

I think you'll find your first (possibly only) requirement is a PR Agency and decent budget ...
posted by southof40 at 6:00 PM on January 23, 2007

You would begin by forming a council and then designating a day, much like the American Pie Council has.
posted by Asherah at 6:55 PM on January 23, 2007

I'd have thought 22/7 would be an even better Pi Day :) (outside of the US)
posted by wackybrit at 11:46 PM on January 23, 2007 [1 favorite]

I think in a lot of these cases, something can be declared "X Day" simply if a group of people recognize that day as a day to be set aside for the celebration of X.

What makes Pie Day Pie Day? Who celebrates it? Who made it up? I'll wager it was just some shenanigans that grew in popularity to the point where uninformed people started hearing about it.
posted by Caper's Ghost at 1:45 AM on January 24, 2007

There are a lot of commemorative days and weeks and months that aren’t really official at all, and most of those that are are simply declared every year; this even includes Thanksgiving. Title 36, Chapter 1, of the US Code lays out the only ongoing “Patriotic and National Observances.”
posted by MrMoonPie at 7:46 AM on January 24, 2007