Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day

What the day is

Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day is observed on February 20. The instructions are precise and absurd: go outdoors at noon, raise your arms over your head, wave them, and shout. The stated purpose is to frighten winter away and encourage spring to arrive.

The southern hemisphere has its own counterpart six months later, in August, when the seasons are reversed and the same complaint applies there.

Origin and background

The day is one of a large collection of novelty observances created by Thomas and Ruth Roy, who have invented and promoted many such days and claim rights over several of them. Its origins are commercial and recent rather than traditional, which is worth knowing given that the format borrows the shape of much older seasonal customs.

Those older customs are real, and they cluster at the same point in the calendar. Late February sits between the winter solstice and the spring equinox, the stretch when daylight is visibly returning but the weather has not yet caught up. Noisemaking rituals to drive off winter appear across many European folk traditions at roughly this point in the year, usually with masks, bells or fire.

The timing also coincides with something measurable. Seasonal affective disorder and general low mood peak in late winter in northern latitudes, driven largely by reduced daylight, and late February is when accumulated cabin fever is at its worst. A holiday whose only instruction is to go outside at midday and make noise is, accidentally or otherwise, decent advice: daylight exposure around noon is the most effective timing for it.

How to take part

• Go outside at noon. That part is the whole ritual and it is also the part with any evidence behind it.
• Take other people with you. Doing this alone in a front yard invites questions.
• Do it with children, who require no persuading whatsoever.
• Stay out for ten or fifteen minutes rather than shouting and retreating.
• If the shouting is not for you, the walk at midday still counts.