August 3 – Esther Day

Posted on August 3, 2019

A young woman named Esther Earl (her last name is almost the same as mine!) was born on this date in 1994. I am going to tell you right up front that she died of thyroid cancer at the tragically young age of 16 - but not without making more of a splash than many other people who have lived on planet Earth.

I mean, let's face it, how many of us have a holiday?

I have never heard of the worlds in which Earl made that splash - the worlds of Nerdfighters and of the Harry Potter Alliance. 

Nerdfighters is a community of people who fight against "world suck" (which is the total amount of suck in the world) by doing awesome things. This community sprung up around the VlogBrothers, John and Hank Green. John Green is the author of the award-winning book (which was also turned into a movie) The Fault in Our Stars, which Green says was partly inspired by Earl. The Greens established The Foundation to Decrease World Suck, a non-profit that helps in a variety of good causes, promotes education, and works on free-speech and ownership-of-intellectual-products issues. Nerdfighters and the Greens started a charitable drive called Project for Awesome and also VidCon, a convention about Vlogs and other digital media.

The Harry Potter Alliance is also non-profit, but more activist that charity. Run by Harry Potter fans, it started by shining a light on human rights violations in Sudan. Now it works on bunches of issues, from LGBTQ+ rights to climate change, from literacy to body image, from sexism to immigration reform.

Esther doing the Nerdfighter salute

Esther Earl was a writer who built up a following on Twitter, Tumblr, and YouTube, and was active both in Nerdfighters and in the Harry Potter Alliance. Esther Day is something now promoted by the Green brothers, but Earl suggested the holiday, saying that she wanted the day to be about family and love. The first Esther Day was celebrated on her birthday just three weeks before she died. 

Earl's writings and her biography have been published together in a bestseller called This Star Won't Go Out. Of course, this book was published several years after Earl died.

Also on this date:

Independence Day in Niger 

Anniversary of the “discovery” of the La Brea Tar Pits

Watermelon Day

Anniversary of the discovery of a Neanderthal

Anniversary of the first watercraft to reach the North Pole

Anniversary of a Messianic figure rejecting the role

National Flag Day in Venezuela

Martyrs' Day in Guinea-Bissau

Sandcastle Day

(First Saturday in August)

Teej Festival

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

• August holidays
• August birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in August

And here are my Pinterest boards for:

• September holidays
• September birthdays
• Historical anniversaries in September

July 31 – Happy Birthday, J. K. Rowling!

Posted on July 31, 2013

When little “Jo” was born in England, on this date in 1965, I bet her mom didn't tell her, “You're the sweetest little baby, and you're going to grow up to be really, really rich and famous!”

If her mom had had any idea, when her baby was born, that her daughter was going to write the best-selling book series in history, which would become the highest-grossing film series in history—well, her mom probably would've given her a middle name!

It would've been handy to have a middle name, since Rowling's publisher for the Harry Potter books didn't want a female name on the cover (Joanne Rowling). Instead, they decided to put her first and middle name as initials, along with Rowling.

Only problem: Rowling had no middle name. She had to make up a second initial. So the “J” stands for Joanne (nickname Jo), but the “K” doesn't stand for anything at all!

The British (top) and American (bottom) versions
of the Harry Potter books do not
always have the same cover art—
or even the same titles!

How did she do it?

Rowling had written stuff ever since she was six, so she was used to getting good ideas and writing stories. However, when she was on a delayed train trip, one day, and she got the idea of Harry Potter, a boy who didn't know he was a wizard, she was really excited. It seemed like a really good idea to her—maybe the best she'd ever had!

Unfortunately, Rowling didn't have a pen that worked to write down her great idea! She reports that she was really frustrated with the no-pen scenario—but she was too shy to borrow one from a stranger.

Fortunately, Rowling didn't have a pen that worked to write down her great idea! Rowling now wonders, if she had slowed down her thoughts long enough to write them down, would she have lost some of the ideas and stifled others?

Rowling did start writing the book that night—and so also wrote her own rags-to-riches story!

Celebrate!

Enter Harry Potter's world, all over again, with the books or movies.

Check out the Harry Potter activities at Activity Village or at iVillage. There are a whole lot of Harry Potter games and puzzles at Surf NetKids, and this Pinterest page has everything from wizard recipes to Harry Potter crafts to Hogwarts printables.

Also on this date:

Uncommon Instruments Day 

Kevlar inventor Stephanie Kwolek's birthday

Hawaiian Flag Day

Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest pages on July holidays, historical anniversaries in July, and July birthdays.

And here are my Pinterest pages on August holidays, historical anniversaries in August, and August birthdays.