Hamil Day: Making a Holiday

Let me take you back aways to witness the birthing of a glorious tradition. The month is March 2021, and three of my friends and myself are talking in the Rec Center conference room. As it turns out, some humble Andrews students had recently held a birthday celebration for their friend. Some plucky soul had written “Happy Birth Day Hamil” on the whiteboard. While one could question the fascinating choice made to split the compound word “birthday,” what is more relevant is the fact that, in the intervening weeks and days, various scoundrels (I’m sure) had also added an additional “Hamil!” at the end. At a distinctly different point, ruffians also had erased the word “Birth” and replaced it with “(Hamil),” resulting in a final string which read as: “Happy (Hamil) Day Hamil Hamil!”

On this fateful day in the Rec Center, we commented on how it was funny that the header on the board was growing longer and longer over time. We proceeded to question what this celebration of Hamil Day–for which the author of the board wished us to have a happy one–could be. We decided that, since no one else was likely to take up the cause to celebrate Hamil Day, we would. Thus, the annual holiday of Hamil Day was born.

Every holiday needs traditions, and the traditions of Hamil Day are as follows:

1. On Hamil Day Eve, beautiful and/or distinguished rocks are collected to be presented and duly honored as a collection on Hamil Day.
2. On Hamil Day itself, the rock collections are presented and duly honored, a Chris Evans movie is watched (preferably an old, bad one), and a game of (no-actual-betting) poker is played.

How did these traditions come about? Like most holidays, no one really remembers their origins, but perhaps more important than establishing traditions, something else we did that night was set a date. We agreed to meet in a week or two to celebrate it, and we actually did! What’s more, Hamil Day just recently passed again, and once more we met and celebrated. Not a celebration of anything in particular, just a celebration of friendship and the sometimes-silliness that comes along with it.

So often we–at least I–talk about doing something cool, but don’t actually follow through on it. We say, “Yeah, that would be fun,” and, “One day, maybe,” but that day just never ends up coming. With Hamil Day we actually made the commitment, and it was as easy as agreeing on a date. I’ve been trying to do that more this year–actually planning and committing to do things now, rather than leaving them to an indefinite time in the future. My invitation is that you will do the same. Maybe start your own friend holiday or simply make your friends finally pick a date to go to Chicago. Whatever it is, don’t wait; do it now. University is the time for doing fun things with friends–you’ll never regret following through on that! 

An Afterward from the Editors:
While editing this article, our Copy Editor, Lily Burke (junior, anthropology), realized that “Hamil Day” was based on a quick announcement that she wrote on the whiteboard which said, “Happy Birthday Hamil.” As an anthropology major she found it incredibly entertaining and said, “I am immeasurably thrilled at the lessons [here]. I loved the reflection on how so many of what we consider to be immovable institutions in time are really just someone's decision to start something.”