One of the best ways to avoid needless employment law disputes is to stay in touch with what your employees are thinking, feeling and doing. As part of our never-ending quest to keep you up-to-speed on the latest developments affecting your workplace, the following is our guide to some of the lesser-known celebrations your employees might be observing this month.

CONTEST: Just to make sure you’re paying attention, I included one made-up item. The rest are very real. The first person to post a comment or send me an email at blawg@manpower.com identifying the bogus celebration will win a valuable prize.

Weekly Celebrations

  • National Hug Week (3-9)
  • National Pet Week (3-9)
  • Intimate Apparel Week (5-9)
  • National Dog Bite Prevention Week (17-25)
  • Week of Solidarity With the People of Non-self-governing Territories (25-31)

Daily Observances

  • May Day (1)
  • Lei Day (1)
  • No Pants Day (1)
  • Tuba Day (1)
  • Clown Days (1-3)
  • Join Hands Day (2)
  • Lumpy Rug Day (3)
  • National Two Different Colored Shoes Day (3)
  • Paranormal Day (3)
  • Motorcycle Mass & Blessing of the Bikes Day (3)
  • Respect for Chickens Day (4)
  • Use “Antidisestablishmentarianism” in Every Sentence Day (5)
  • No Diet Day (6)
  • Great American Grump Out (6)
  • No Socks Day (8)
  • National Miniature Golf Day (9)
  • Stay Up All Night Day (9)
  • Eat What You Want Day (11)
  • Limerick Day (12)
  • National Nutty Fudge Day (12)
  • Root Canal Appreciation Day (14)
  • National Chocolate Chip Day (15)
  • National Pizza Party Day (16)
  • National Sea Monkey Day (16)
  • NASCAR Day (17)
  • I Need A Patch For That Day (21)
  • National Wig Out Day (22)
  • National Taffy Day (23)
  • Tiara Day (23)
  • Cookie Monster’s Birthday (25)
  • National Tap Dance Day (25)
  • Nerd Pride Day (25)
  • Slugs Return From Capistrano Day (28)
  • Hug Your Cat Day (30)

What this means for employers. If your employees suddenly stop wearing pants and socks and instead start wearing intimate apparel, clown noses, non-matching shoes and tiaras, showing undue respect to chickens, hugging cats, spouting limericks, appreciating root canals, flattening lumpy rugs, tap dancing in their cubicles, taking pride in their nerdishness, playing the tuba, welcoming returning slugs, joining hands with people from non-self-governing territories and/or ingesting inordinate amounts of nutty fudge, chocolate chips, pizza, taffy and sea monkeys, now you know why.

Enjoy the month!

(Sources: holidaysmart.com, emotionscards.com, brownielocks.com)