These are the only 2 holidays listed in August- I assume Hallmark made these up to keep the $$$ coming in. A little history so you can say you learned something new today, and subsequently agree or disagree that these are holidays driven by capitalism:
Friendship Day (Aug. 2 this year- there's a website all about it) was proclaimed in 1935 by Congress to be celebrated on the first Sunday in August. It has gained popularity around the world and Whinnie the Pooh was named the World's Ambassador of Friendship by the United Nations in 1997. It seems like India is really into Friendship Day.
Cards, however, were way ahead of Congress. Around 1916, Hallmark founder J.C. Hall got the mail going with a card that said "I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me..." written on the inside. It was a best seller for 70 years.
Sister's Day is self explanatory and there isn't much history on it- no one can say who started it and when, but it too is celebrated on the first Sunday in August. Sisters (biological as well as just the ladies that you hold close to your hearts) get kudos on this day each year.
I was trying to figure out just how much of a market there is for Sister's Day cards. The US Census Bureau is quite helpful and I'm going to go with 141,297,667 eligible females in the US in 2008 who could have sent or received a card. Anyone else have a guess?
What about Happy AMDAL Day? Submissions for cards are accepted at this time. I'll go first.
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