25 Offbeat Holidays You Can Celebrate in November

Thanksgiving and the countdown to Christmas tend to steal the show as soon as trick-or-treating wraps up on Halloween. But November is packed with other—albeit less famous—festivities. Here are some offbeat holidays to note this November.

1. November 1 // National Cook For Your Pets Day
2. November 2 // Plan Your Epitaph Day
3. November 3 // Cliché Day
4. November 3 // Sandwich Day
5. November 4 // King Tut Day
6. November 5 // Guy Fawkes Day
7. November 6 // Saxophone Day
8. November 8 // International Tongue Twister Day
9. November 8 // Abet And Aid Punsters Day
10. November 13 // World Kindness Day
11. November 13 // Sadie Hawkins Day
12. November 14 // Loosen Up, Lighten Up Day
13. November 15 // Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day
14. November 15 // National Bundt Day
15. November 15 // George Spelvin Day
16. November 17 // Homemade Bread Day
17. November 17 // National Unfriend Day
18. November 18 // Married To A Scorpio Support Day
19. November 19 // World Toilet Day
20. November 21 // Alascattalo Day
21. November 20 // Name Your PC Day
22. November 22 // National Start Your Own Country Day
23. November 23 // Fibonacci Day
24. November 26 // National Flossing Day
25. November 26 // National Sinkie Day

November 1 // National Cook For Your Pets Day

Because your pets do enough around the house, don’t you think?

November 2 // Plan Your Epitaph Day

It’s never too early to start thinking about your eternal tagline.

November 3 // Cliché Day

All’s fair in love and war and holidays, and what goes around comes around, so have the time of your life this November 3 by celebrating this fit-as-a-fiddle celebration. You’ll be like a kid in a candy store.

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November 3 // Sandwich Day

Just look at it: How can you not honor this thing of beauty? John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, was also born around this day (on November 13) in 1718, so feel free to celebrate and eat mightily throughout the month.

November 4 // King Tut Day

No, this day does not commemorate the great Egyptian king’s birthday. On this day in 1922, British archeologist Howard Carter and his crew discovered the entrance to King Tut’s tomb. This monumental discovery was one of the greatest archaeological achievements of the 20th century, and remains a huge attraction well into the 21st.

November 5 // Guy Fawkes Day

Let anarchy and chaos reign today—although if you aren’t in England, you may get a lot of strange looks. The eponymous man behind the infamous “Gunpowder Plot” planned to blow up Britain’s Parliament in 1605, spawning annual bonfire celebrations, effigies, and creepy masks for centuries to come. It was Parliament that declared November 5 as a day of celebration to commemorate their foiling of Fawkes and company’s plot, but it’s Fawkes’s mischievous spirit that pervades the festivities.

November 6 // Saxophone Day

Only an epic sax solo could properly honor this jazzy instrument. (Adolphe Sax was also born on this day in 1814.)

November 8 // International Tongue Twister Day

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Whether you’re in unique New York or selling seashells by the seashore, show off your impressive command of diction today. Or if you’re really in the mood for a challenge, try learning the history between a few famous tongue twisters.

November 8 // Abet And Aid Punsters Day

Feel free to share your favorite puns to help us all celebrate.

November 13 // World Kindness Day

An admirably self-explanatory holiday.

November 13 // Sadie Hawkins Day

The woman asking the man to a dance? How novel! Apparently it was quite novel back in the late 1930s, when Sadie Hawkins Day first appeared in the popular comic strip Li’l Abner. Worried that his homely daughter Sadie might never find a beau, Hekzebiah Hawkins organized a race in which his daughter would chase all the unmarried men in town to the finish line. If she caught one, he was legally obligated to wed her. The holiday became an annual event in the comic strip, and evolved into a real life event as well—with more dancing and less capturing.

November 14 // Loosen Up, Lighten Up Day

Appropriately timed to coincide with Joseph McCarthy’s birthday.

November 15 // Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day

Or as we like to call it, “Discover the science project you didn’t know you had growing in your refrigerator Day.”

November 15 // National Bundt Day

As in, the cake with the hole in the middle. The holiday was created by renowned bundt pan purveyors Nordic Ware to celebrate their 60th anniversary in 2006.

November 15 // George Spelvin Day

George and Georgina/Georgette Spelvin aren’t real people at all. Those names are traditional pseudonyms used in theater when an actor doesn’t want to be identified, is playing multiple roles, or wants to go uncredited for other reasons.

November 17 // Homemade Bread Day

It’s the best thing since sliced ... wait a minute.

November 17 // National Unfriend Day

Jimmy Kimmel is actually responsible for this holiday, which marks an occasion to take a good hard look at your social media connections, and then put a few on the chopping block. Get your clicker finger ready and say adios to old friends, non-friends, and people you literally don’t remember but who somehow made their way into your social media circle.

November 18 // Married To A Scorpio Support Day

The fact that this holiday exists does not speak kindly of those born between October 23 and November 21.

November 19 // World Toilet Day

A holiday devoted to the John, the Pot, the Latrine, the Porcelain God? Sounds like the brainchild of a group of 5th graders. In fact, it’s an international event dedicated to de-stigmatizing toilets and address the challenges of global sanitation. Created in 2001, the official website points out that billions of people in the world do not have proper access to toilets, but also that in addition to being vital to life, toilets can be “fun and sexy.” (Their words, not ours.)

November 21 // Alascattalo Day

The photo above is of a majestic Alaskan grizzly bear, not an alascattalo. We can’t show you an alascattalo, because like George Spelvin, they also don’t exist. The moose-walrus hybrid is a purely mythical beast, and serves as a sort of unofficial mascot for the U.S.’s most northern state.

November 20 // Name Your PC Day

You spend enough time together. Shouldn’t your best friend have a name?

November 22 // National Start Your Own Country Day

If you’re over the pumpkin pie and family cheer, here’s a fun alternative to Thanksgiving. The apparent product of the 1939 World’s Fair in New York, National Start Your Own Country Day salutes those plucky—albeit potentially treasonous and/or imperialist—individuals who believe so strongly in self-determination that they might one day form their own nation-state.

November 23 // Fibonacci Day

Tip your hat to the famous sequence by staring at the glorious spirals in nature, rectangles in architecture, or talking a stroll down a winding staircase.

November 26 // National Flossing Day

You might have heard about that one investigation that found that there’s not much proof that flossing does anything for you, but you can go ahead and ignore that on this holiday. Also: This is not a suggestion to floss just once a year.

November 26 // National Sinkie Day

A day for those who dine while standing above their kitchen sink, something you might do during your second Thanksgiving meal in the middle of the night (or the early morning hours of National Sinkie Day).

A version of this story ran in 2020; it has been updated for 2025.