Today is National Hawaiian Shirt Day. Why? Because I said so.

For anyone cruising around Seymour in their car listening to the radio who hears that it is National Something Day, or National This or That Day as cuckoo as it sounds, and wonders how that came to be designated, guess what, there is a very limited, reasonably unofficial organizational process.

Sometimes when one hears it is National Hot Dog Day, National Corn-on-the-Cob Day or National Hula Hoop Day, it took not much more vetting of the odd claim than my declaration of Hawaiian Shirt Day.

Alternatively, there are definitely some National Days that one might call the real deal, of more seriousness. While some National Days provoke no more than a chuckle, it can be stated that a genuine National Day requires an act of Congress. Those would include Thanksgiving Day, Presidents Day, Labor Day and the like. One way you can tell if a National Day is official is if it is a no-school day. Dead giveaway.

That is opposed to National Noodle Day, which I stumbled upon Sunday, Oct. 6. Two days later, Oct. 8, was National Pierogi Day. I assume both of those celebratory designated days stress food consumption.

Unlike those National Days decreed to be of significant importance as holidays, many National Days are hard to take seriously at all. And I have always wondered how come they don’t even get the calendar to themselves for an entire 24-hour block.

Noodle Day, apparently lacking in clout, shared Oct. 6 as a National Day on one list I discovered with 19 other National Days, including, really, Mad Hatter Day, Orange Wine Day, National Transfer Money to your Daughter Day, Zero Index Day, National Coaches Day and National Badgers Day. Perhaps the last one means we should all have cheered for University of Wisconsin sports teams for that day. To provide props to each of those days means we would be able to devote barely more than an hour of appreciation, never mind a full day.

All of this essential need-to-know stuff about National Days stems from the mind of a guy named Marlo Anderson of South Dakota, who in 2013 invented the National Day Calendar. What began as a website hobby has mushroomed. Within a year it attracted a million visitors. The attention to the website has grown by the millions in the years since.

A beneficiary of curiosity and personal energy, the National Day Calendar website — and Anderson — receive about 18,000 applications annually with suggestions for new National Days. At one point he said about 30 of those ideas were approved a year. That seems to be about the same odds as winning the lottery, so don’t hold your breath about acceptance.

This may not come as a major surprise, but the company sells calendars listing the National Days. Hey, 2025 is just around the corner.

It may or may not also surprise people to learn there is a National Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work/School Day, or a National Red Mitten Day or Answer the Phone Like Buddy-the-Elf Day. Clearly, a certain amount of whimsy, or absurdity is involved in the selection of certain National Days.

Or the days can be more thoughtful such as a National Day of Forgiveness or National Stop Bullying Day.

Just FYI, there is a Hawaiian Shirt Day. It is celebrated on the third Friday of August and commemorates the day when Hawaii was admitted to the United States as the 50th state. That is both frivolous and meaningful recognition.

For those of us owning closets full of colorful, short-sleeved shirts picturing palm trees, sunsets, parrots and the like, there is also no policy against wearing Hawaiian shirts on any other days of the year.

Indeed, Anderson’s philosophy, even if he has somewhat cornered the market on National Days that are unofficial National Days is to “Celebrate Every Day.”

Words to live by.