Geek Pride Day

Geek Pride Day
Spanish Friki reading manga in a comic shop
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.
Celebrations	Role Playing Games, Parades, Cosplay
Date	May 25
Related to	Nerd, Geek, Star Wars

Geek Pride Day, is an initiative which claims the right of every person to be a nerd or a geek.

This day is celebrated on May 25 since 2006, celebrating the premiere of the first Star Wars movie in 1977. It is on the same day as Towel Day.

Origins

In 2006, this day was celebrated for the first time all over Spain and on the Internet, thanks to the publicity given by some media as:

• Salas, Javier (2006-05-26). "Comecocos y mangas toman la calle: la revancha de los frikis". Telecinco. Retrieved 2006-05-26.
• Perez, Javier (2006-05-26). "Orgullo friki". El Mundo. Retrieved 2005-05-26.
• Ramos, David (2006-05-25). "25 de mayo: Día del Orgullo Friki". 20minutos. Retrieved 2005-05-25.

The biggest concentration took place in Madrid, where 300 Geeks demonstrated their pride together with a human pacman.

2007 celebration

In 2007, the celebration counted with more help from Official institutions (as the Price Circus in Madrid) and has been more widely celebrated throughout Spain. Official acts were announced in Pilar de la Horadada, Cádiz, Huesca, Calaf, Huelva and Valencia. A Nerd Blood Donation campaign took place. Among other acts, the movie "Gritos en el pasillo" ("Screams in the corridor") was presented.

2008 Geek Pride Day comes to America

In 2008, Geek Pride Day crossed the Atlantic, and was officially celebrated in America, where it was heralded by numerous bloggers, coalescing around the launch of the GeekPrideDay website. Math author, Euler Book Prize winner, and geek blogger John Derbyshire not only did a shout out, but announced 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.

By 2009, acknowledgment of the day had reached the Science Channel, with special programming on May 25th to celebrate.

2009 Geek Pride Day comes to Ottawa, Canada

Nerd Pride Day is set to come to Canada in May 2009, with festivities planned in Ottawa, Canada, the capital city. Ottawa is home to the Canada Science and Technology Museum as well, the Ottawa Chess Club, and a notable research centre in Canada.

Basic rights and responsibilities of geeks

A manifesto was created to celebrate the first Geek Pride Day which included the following list of basic rights and responsibilities of geeks.

Rights:

1. The right to be even geekier.
2. The right to not leave your house.
3. The right to not have a significant other and to be a virgin.
4. The right to not like football or any other sport.
5. The right to associate with other nerds.
6. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
7. The right to have all the geeky friends that you want.
8. The right to not be "in-style."
9. The right to be overweight and have poor eyesight.
10. The right to show off your geekiness.
11. The right to take over the world.

Responsibilities:

1. Be a geek, no matter what.
2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.
3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.
4. Save any and all geeky things you have.
5. Do everything you can to show off your geeky stuff as though it were a "museum of geekiness."
6. Don't be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.
7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.
8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.
9. Don't waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.
10. Befriend any person or persons bearing any physical similarities to comic book or sci-fi figures.
11. Try to take over the world!

See also

• Towel Day, which coincides with Nerd Pride Day
• Pi Day
• Geek
• Nerd
• Asperger's Syndrome

External links

• Unofficial Web page of the Nerd Pride Day with photos and videos of the celebration (Spanish)
• The first official web page to organise Nerd Pride Day (Spanish)