Happy International Penguin Day!
We observe Penguin Day by doing three things:
•
Wear only black and white. Tradition allows for a red bowtie on a white
shirt but this is optional.
If you don't want to go out in public (which is understandable) you should at
least spread the word about penguin day!
•
Meal Choices - Sometime during the day, everyone is encouraged to enjoy a
repast of strawberries and chocolate (see below to find out
why). If you are a true penguin fanatic, you should have
fish for breakfast, lunch, and supper.
•
Be prepared to share a good penguin joke with your friends.
Ideally, this joke should be clean, inoffensive, topical, very funny,
mercifully short, and about penguins, or show them some penguin comics.
Penguin Day began many years ago when someone at NWC (Naval Weapons Center)
Ridgecrest, California became aware of the migration habits of the Antarctic
penguin, the harvest cycle of California strawberries, and the shipping data
of worldwide chocolate exporters.
On April 25th of every year, the formally-clad penguins of the Antarctic
continent begin an incredible northward migration. Penguins are unique in that
they are the only migratory birds that don't fly (they swim). They are also
unique in that apparently they don't take migratlon all that seriously. In
fact, the penguin's migratory habits are an embarrassment to most
instinctively compulsive species. They start their migration in that same
wonderfully grand fashion that, say, the Canadian Geese do. On cue, in
synchronicity with some mysterious call of Nature, penguins of great number
and varied breeds all dive into that "wild blue under" and head north.
Curiously, they only swim about a hundred miles or so from the ice shelf and,
after enjoying an extended "krill break", they all shrug (as only penguins can
and seem to lose interest in migrating) and bob about for a while like
millions of undecided, leaderless penguins (which they are), then all head
back South and are home by suppertime.
Incredibly, on April 25, on that very same day that the penguins are involved
in the above-described odyssey, the Great California Strawberry Harvest takes
place. More strawberries are picked, washed, and boxed up in the San Joaquin
Valley on that day than in all other places worldwide all year long.
Finally, just to round out the symmetrical convergence of these otherwise
unrelated events, the world's biggest chocolate exporter, Nestle, always ships
its greatest tonnage of chocolate during the week of April 25th. It all has to
do with cocoa bean futures, Swiss bank practices, and international export
regulations.
One may be hard-put to imagine another day of the year that cries out for
recognition more than April 25th. We call it Penguin Day.
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