Happy Elephant Appreciation Day!
This was perhaps the easiest of celebration days for me to find out about.
History
Mission Media, Inc. declared September 22nd Elephant Appreciation Day in 1996. The company is a digital and print publisher of graphics, but it’s owned by the Hepburn Family. (Maybe a relation of Katherine and Audrey Hepburn?)
Wayne Hepburn, Mission Media’s publisher and president, started the day because the elephant:
• is the largest living land mammal
• has a unique nose –it’s trunk!
• is noble
• is an endangered species
• has helped man in various ways throughout the ages
• delights and entertains
• is a gentle giant
• helps maintain ecosystems
The celebration of elephants began with the creation of the website Elephanteria, which the Elephant Appreciation Day website is related to.
Of All Things to Fall in Love with, Why Elephants?
It started innocuously enough –with a gift. Back in 1970, his 12 year old daughter gave him a paperweight which incorporated a parade of elephants on its base. From then on he just sort of started collecting elephant figurines. Before he knew it, they were outnumbering the books on his bookshelf!
But figurines weren’t the only thing he started collecting. He also started collecting books about elephants in addition to anything else imaginable. You name it. If an elephant’s likeness could be put on it, he got it. Shirts, toys, jewelry, pictures…didn’t matter. At some point he began cataloging his items and next thing he knew he had 1,900!
During this time he was also seeking out anything he could learn about them, and that’s where his appreciation and love for these amazing beasts really took hold.
“[The Elephant] deserves to be appreciated and upheld as an example of courage, strength, self-reliance, patience, persistence, and general high quality of being.” From the Elephant Appreciation Day website
How to Celebrate
There isn’t any grand event held anywhere with activities and such. It’s more a day of observance.
However, there are tons of elephant-related ideas, games, and even recipes on the website. Things like an elephant word hunt, an elephant knowledge quiz for kids, and instructions for doing elephant dances. As far as the food (my favorite thing) there are ideas for constructing an elephant-shaped cake, forming your bacon and eggs to resemble an elephant, and a recipe for “Elephoot Cookies.”
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