Geek Pride Day
| Geek Pride Day | |
|---|---|
 Spanish Friki reading in a comic shop |
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| Observed by | Geeks and nerds around the world |
| Type | Cultural |
| Significance | A non-denominational holiday to be celebrated by nerds and geeks who do not feel ashamed of showing their unconventional interests in public. |
| Date | May 25 |
| Celebrations | Role-playing games, Parades, Cosplay |
| Related to | Nerd, Geek, Star Wars |
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Geek Pride Day is an initiative to promote geek culture, celebrated on 25 May. The date was chosen as to commemorate the release of the first Star Wars film, A New Hope on 25 May 1977 (see Star Wars Day), but shares the same day as two other similar fan "holidays": Towel Day, for fans of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy by Douglas Adams, and the Glorious 25 May for fans of Terry Pratchett's Discworld.
The initiative originated in Spain in 2006 as "Orgullo Friki" and spread around the world via the internet.
Contents |
[edit] Origins
Tim McEachern organized unconnected events called Geek Pride Festival and/or Geek Pride Day 1998 to 2000 at a bar in Albany, New York, which are sometimes seen as a prelude to Geek Pride Day.
In 2006, the day was celebrated for the first time in Spain and on the Internet, drawing attention from mainstream media.[1][2][3] The biggest concentration took place in Madrid, where 300 Geeks demonstrated their pride together with a human pacman. A manifesto was created to celebrate the first Geek Pride Day, which included a list of the basic rights and responsibilities of geeks.[4]
[edit] 2008
In 2008, Geek Pride Day was officially celebrated in America, where it was heralded by numerous bloggers, coalescing around the launch of the Geek Pride Day website. Math author, Euler Book Prize winner, and geek blogger John Derbyshire not only did a shout out, but announced [5] that he would be appearing in the Fifth Avenue parade, dressed as number 57, on the prime number float - prompting some bloggers to say they'd be looking for him.
[edit] Continued spread
By 2009, acknowledgment of the day had reached the Science Channel, with special programming on 25 May to celebrate and events took place to commemorate the day in Ottawa, home to the Canada Science and Technology Museum and a notable research centre in Canada.,[6] while in 2010 the festival spread further, taking in cities as diverse as Halifax, Nova Scotia; Budapest, Hungary; Tel Aviv, Israel; Timişoara, Romania and San Diego, California.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Salas, Javier (2006-05-26). "Comecocos y mangas toman la calle: la revancha de los frikis (Spanish)". Telecinco. http://www.informativos.telecinco.es/concentracion/orgullo_friki/comecocos/dn_25946.htm. Retrieved 2006-05-26.
- ^ Perez, Javier (2006-05-26). "Orgullo friki (Spanish)". El Mundo. http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2006/05/26/descodificador/1148596810.html. Retrieved 2005-05-26.
- ^ Ramos, David (2006-05-25). "25 de mayo: Día del Orgullo Friki". 20minutos. http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/122796/0/dia/orgullo/friki/. Retrieved 2005-05-25.
- ^ 25 de mayo: Día del Orgullo Friki - 20minutos.es
- ^ "Hug a Geek", The Corner, Thursday May 22, 2008, 8:44 am
- ^ http://spacesplacesandfaces.ca/march-1-2007/
