meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Civics 101

How the Government Makes a Holiday

Civics 101

NHPR

History, Government, Society & Culture

4.22.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 December 2022

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How does something go from an annual tradition to a mandated day off? Who decides to make a holiday official? Today we're taking a look at everything from Christmas to National Walk Around Things Day, from our twelve official federal holidays to some day made up by a sock company. Our guides to the holiday season are Jeff Bensch, author of History of American Holidays, and JerriAnne Boggis, Executive Director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Nick, you know how when you're a journalist that tends to mean spending every morning clicking

0:07.0

through about a dozen or so press releases just to clean out your inbox?

0:10.1

Yeah, there's a guy who was an extra in Pirates of the Caribbean who I get an email about

0:14.3

like once a month who's got an opinion to share about some.

0:17.7

I feel like you should interview him.

0:19.3

You should.

0:20.3

You just consider it.

0:23.2

And at least a few times a month it's something like we hope you're planning to cover a national

0:26.9

diet to me just a birthday or national clean out your virtual desktop day.

0:32.3

Last week I got one that was like hey we know you know it's a national peppermint birthday.

0:36.8

Everybody knows.

0:37.8

Here's what you should be doing to cover it and if we have these experts to talk about

0:41.4

it if you're interested.

0:42.4

And I'm always like who came down from on high and decided that it was national bubble

0:47.5

wrap appreciation day.

0:49.5

I'm going to blame big bubble wrap for that one.

0:52.3

A bunch of bubble wrap moguls sitting on their bubble wrap throes popping their product.

0:58.6

I have looked into it.

1:00.5

Some of these micro holidays a term that I stole from Atlantic writer Megan Garber are

1:05.0

manufactured by industries to sell things.

1:07.6

You're right.

1:08.6

Now some are to my mind, legitimate reminders, the draw awareness to illness or social

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NHPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NHPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.