| Holiday Name: | Towel Day |
| Type: | International |
| Official Name: | Towel Day |
| Observedby: | Fans of the author Douglas Adams |
| Duration: | 1 day |
| Frequency: | annual |
| Scheduling: | same day each year |
| Date: | 25 May |
| Observances: | carrying a towel throughout the day |
| Relatedto: | Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy |
Towel Day is celebrated every year on 25 May as a tribute to the author Douglas Adams by his fans.[1] On this day, fans openly carry a towel with them, as described in Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to demonstrate their appreciation for the books and the author. The commemoration was first held 25 May 2001, two weeks after Adams' death on 11 May.[2]
The importance of the towel was introduced in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy original radio series in 1978. The follow-up book explained the importance of towels in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy universe in Chapter 3, using much of the same wording as the original radio series:
The original article that began Towel Day was posted by a D. Clyde Williamson,[3] a contributor at "System Toolbox", a short-lived System Administration website affiliated with "Binary Freedom", an open source forum.[4] To promote the group's proposed memorial event, System Toolbox's site director, Chris Campbell, created the towelday.org website. The idea was shared by Slashdot in a post that reminded people to bring their towels on May 25. Towel Day was an immediate success among fans and many people sent in pictures of themselves with their towels.[5] Campbell ran the Towel Day website for several years before transferring it. It is now maintained by an anonymous group of Douglas Adams' fans.
Several news sources around the world have mentioned Towel Day, including the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten[6] and the television news show NRK Nyheter,[7] and National Public Radio, Los Angeles.[8]
In May 2010, an online petition was created asking Google to recognize Towel Day with either a Google Doodle or by returning search results in the Vogon language for a day. As of 10 September 2014, the petition had received 5,373 signatures; however, the petition website is now defunct. On 11 March 2013, Google published an official Doodle in recognition of what would have been Douglas Adams’ 61st birthday.[9]
In Canada, Volt, a French/English television show, created a skit in which Towel Day was explained and featured.[10]
In Ecuador, Radio City, a BBC affiliated radio station, interviewed one of the organizers of Towel Day in Toronto to introduce their listeners to Towel Day.[11] The interview was in Spanish and English.
In the United Kingdom, Planet Rock aired an "Alternative Thought Of The Day" by David Haddock about Towel Day[12] and Siren FM broadcast "Dean Wilkinson & the Importance of International Towel Day".[13]
In January 2012, The Huffington Post listed Towel Day as one of ten cult literary traditions.[14]
In recognition of Towel Day, the Norwegian public transportation company Kolumbus gave away a limited number of special towels to customers. Each towel contained an RFID chip that allows a free ride on their buses and boats.[15] In Washington, D.C., the Chevy Chase branch of the District of Columbia Public Library offered prizes for those who wore a towel to the library on Towel Day.[16]
On Towel Day 2015, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti sent a "Towel Day greeting" and read aloud a sample from The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy from the International Space Station.[17]
Towel Day was celebrated by Briton Tim Peake on the International Space Station.[18]
As Towel Day 2016 fell during the RIPE 72 meeting, the RIPE NCC distributed a beach towel printed with an IPv6 subnet chart (from their training materials).[19]
The first SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launch used a Tesla Roadster as a test payload, emblazoned with the words "DON'T PANIC!", a reference to the phrase from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. In the glove compartment of the car was a copy of the book and a towel.[20]
In the year 2019, Towel Day was celebrated by Don't Panic Labs in Nebraska, U.S., by organizing a donation drive called the "Towel Day Drive" where people were asked to donate new or extremely gently used towels to the "People's City Mission". Many people also donated money to buy towels.[21]