Geek Pride Day

May 25^th is recognized around the world as Geek Pride Day. This is a day for geeks, nerds, and dorks to celebrate their unconventional or unusual interests and hobbies. We geeks might be ridiculed for our interests the other 364 days out of the year, but Geek Pride Day is a day to celebrate and be proud of the things that make nerds unique.

Geek Pride Day - What is a Geek?

The terms "nerd" or "geek" are pretty broad, encompassing a lot of unusual interests. These are the folks who are obsessed with comic books, Star Trek, or even model airplanes. Geeks are also the people who play Dungeons & Dragons, are really into video games, or latch on to science-fiction or horror franchises. They dress up for conventions as cosplayers, play LARP (live action roleplay) in local parks, or man the booths at your regional Renaissance Faire. Geeks are also the people behind all things computing, from design to repair.

Geeks are also the nicest people you could ever hope to meet. They're big kids at heart, and not afraid to love the things they love (or hate the things they hate) with the burning passion of a thousand suns. They're really nice people, albeit often socially awkward. They're also typically highly intelligent, thanks to a passion for learning and wanting to understand how things work.

Where would the world be without geeks? Consider the passion of people like Nikola Tesla, Leonardo da Vinci, the Wright brothers, Pierre and Marie Curie, or Galileo. Surely, their interests were geeky in their time; people probably didn't respect their passions just like the geeks of today. Yet their achievements changed the shape of our world. Today's geeks, like Bill Gates and Stephen Hawking, will likely be remembered for their achievements well beyond their lifetimes.

Geek Pride Day - History

The first annual Geek Pride Day was held in 2006. This was primarily celebrated in Spain and online, and each year the holiday has grown in popularity. This year, Geek Pride Day mentions are making the rounds at social networking hubs such as Facebook and Twitter. Celebrations will go on around the world, in varied countries such as Canada, Israel and Budapest. Though Geek Pride Day is an unofficial holiday, the expansion of information across social media networks suggests that the festiviities will continue to grow in years to come.

The very day of Geek Pride Day is geeky. The date was selected to honor the release date of the original Star Wars film, A New Hope, which opened on May 25^th, 1977. As an additional bit of trivia, this week also saw the 30^th anniversaries of two elements of geekdom. Episode V in the Star Wars franchise, The Empire Strikes Back, celebrated its 30^th anniversary this week, as did cult classic video game Pac-Man.

I like to think there's a little geek in everyone. There are bound to be unusual things that we're interested in or collect, even if you're the most "normal" person there is. I even consider myself a HUGE geek. As a trivia buff, PC builder, Star Wars enthusiast and video game collector, the "geek" tag fits me pretty well. I'll be celebrating Geek Pride Day with bells on. If you've ever dressed up as Princess Leia or wanted to be a Thundercat, make sure you don't miss out on Geek Pride Day.

Source:

Wikipedia. "Geek Pride Day."