National Flashlight Day
National Flashlight Day
Annually every 21st of December the National Flashlight Day is Observed, and is also the shortest day of the year and also marks the arrival of winter solstice over the entire Northern Hemisphere! On this day, the regions of the Northern Hemisphere experience only 9 hours and 15 minutes of daylight whereas areas in the north like the Arctic Circle receive no light at all.
Year | Date | Day | Where |
2020 | 21st December | Monday | United States |
2021 | 21st December | Tuesday | United States |
2022 | 21st December | Wednesday | United States |
Twitter Hashtags:
#NationalFlashlightDay
#FlashlightDay
Related: Other National Days Celebrated on December 21st:
National French Fried Shrimp Day
National Homeless Persons Remembrance Day
Why National Flashlight Day?
The term “solstice” originates from the Latin root word for sun standing still – ‘sol’ and ‘sistere’. On this day the sun rises to the southern-most position of its trajectory and stands still in the sky making the day short.
Even the ancient cultures from Rome, China, Northern Europe commemorated the Winter Solstice with feasts and gifts. The Druids honored the winter solstice as being symbolic of the rebirth of the sun.
Portable electric lights are a relatively recent invention, but the quest for handy lights is an old fad. Before 1896, to Search in the dark, one had to use a candle or kerosene lantern but accidents occurred and fires followed thus a safer alternative was needed.
The first flashlight was an invention of a British inventor David Misell in the year of 1899. It came with three-D batteries placed in a tube that worked as a handle of the device. The first flashlights did not sell too well because of the poor performance of batteries and because of the inefficiency of carbon-filament electric bulbs.
The flashlight was made a more useful device by Replacing carbon filament with tungsten and improvised batteries. This modification increased its popularity, thus replacing lamps with flammable fuel.
There were several optimized designs and versions of flashlights By the year 1922. Of the many designs available, There was an exemplary round and hollow variation, a lamp formed rendition that could be left to stand, a reflector type for lightning with a more prominent region, and a little pocket variation.
Thus the Different varieties and usefulness were unbeatable reasons for the high demand for flashlights, which resulted in 10 million flashlight users by the same time.
But today, Flashlights are pretty advanced and are optimized for various needs. One can use the penlight, headlamp, tactical lights, and many more to light up the dark.
On the National Flashlight Day, the regions experiencing the darkest day lit up the flashlight to commemorate the Winter Solstice.
How can we observe National Flashlight Day?
- Basic Rule: Ensure you have a flashlight and fresh batteries! You’ll need them to navigate through the longest night
- Stock up flashlights in every room and even the garage, the car and the boat
- Plan a treasure hunt with flashlights on this day and awaken the explorer inside of you
- Read a book under the flashlight whilst curled under the blanket!
- Play some peppy music and dance away with the flashlights
- Gift wrap flashlights and give it away to your close-knit circle, to make it more personal, choose the color of their personal choice!
- Light up your home with flashlights, decorate the stairs or light up your street with flashlights a make this a community observance
- Origins! Look back and be amazed at how the flashlight came into existence, take a moment to appreciate the amalgamation of science and technology
- Use #NationalFlashlightDay and #FlashlightDay to post on social media today!
- Live up the night with storytelling or poetry jam!
- Candlelight dinners are cool, how about a flashlight dinner?
Interesting facts about National Flashlight Day
Here are some interesting facts surrounding flashlights!
- The large rock pillars of their Stonehenge monument align precisely with the sun on two days of the year, the summer and winter solstice.
- The winter solstice not only occurs on a specific day but it also occurs at a specific time! For those on Eastern Standard Time, the solstice occurs at 11:19 pm on December 21st. And irrespective of where you live, the solstice happens at the same time for everyone on the planet.
- Barrow, Alaska, will not have a sunrise at all this day!
- Scandinavian and Germanic pagans lit fires and may have burned Yule logs as a symbolic means of welcoming back the light.
- The Zoroastrian lore holds that evil spirits wander the Earth and the forces of the destructive spirit Ahriman is strongest on this long night.
History Of National Flashlight Day
The founder and origin of the National Flashlight Day are unknown to our research. This day is celebrated as a fun holiday!