Is Atheist Day on March 23 or April 1?

March 23. The April 1 association comes from a fictional story about a Florida court that has circulated online since the early 2000s and was rated false by Snopes in 2004.

Who created Atheist Day?

A coalition of secular and ex-Muslim organizations convened by Atheist Republic, which published a declaration and held the first worldwide observance in 2019. Listings that credit a Spanish federation in 2009 are unsupported, and Spain's own day of atheism falls on March 14.

Why is Atheist Day on March 23?

The organizing coalition fixed the date in its declaration, and its campaign site was already counting down to March 23, 2019 a year before the first observance. No document from the organizers explains why that particular date was chosen.

Atheist Day

Next celebratedTuesday, March 23, 2027

The green circle that marks this day comes with instructions for hiding it, written for atheists at risk; 12 countries can still punish blasphemy or apostasy with death.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

--DAYS

--HRS

--MIN

--SEC

Last updated August 18, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEMarch 23

OBSERVED INInternationally

CATEGORYAwareness

SUBCATEGORYValues

ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

Atheist Republic

FIRST OBSERVED

2019

“Atheist Republic and its partner organizations declared March 23 Atheist Day, and the first worldwide observance followed in 2019.

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A coalition named the date a year early.

A coalition of secular and ex-Muslim organizations convened by Atheist Republic published a declaration naming March 23 as Atheist Day. The campaign site was online by March 2018, counting down to the first worldwide observance on March 23, 2019.

Read the Atheist Day Declarationvia Atheist Republic

INTRO

A symbol that comes with instructions for hiding it

Atheist Day has a symbol, and it is a modest one: a green circle. The people who designed it also wrote down how to conceal it. Anyone at risk should wear a green bracelet or necklace instead, the guidance says, or a green hijab where head coverings are mandatory.

That instruction is the clearest statement of what the day is for. It is written for people who risk physical danger or social exclusion if they are identified as atheists. Humanists International's annual survey counts 12 countries where blasphemy or apostasy can carry the death penalty.

So the observance asks for visibility where visibility is safe, and offers a quieter version where it is not. Its own guidance tells participants to keep their personal safety paramount.

ORIGINS

Atheist Day history

INTRODUCTION

An atheist holiday circulated online long before there was a real one, and it was a joke told at atheists' expense. A story that spread in the early 2000s described a Florida judge dismissing an atheist's complaint and informing him that April 1 was already his day. Snopes rated it false in 2004 and traced it to a joke circulated on a humor mailing list two years earlier.

It was a joke in the shape of a court record, and it kept circulating anyway. Two decades on, it is still mistaken for the real observance.

CHAPTER 01

The campaign that arrived first

The real day was assembled well in advance. A campaign site was already online in March 2018. It was counting down to March 23 of the following year.

The page already carried its partners' logos: the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, Ex-Muslims of North America, Muslimish and Ex-Muslims of Jordan. Their joint declaration opened with one line of business. "We atheists and atheist allies hereby declare that from now on, March 23rd is Atheist Day."

CHAPTER 02

What the first one looked like

The date arrived in 2019, and the fullest account of it comes from London. The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain chalked slogans across Russell Square.

That evening Maryam Namazie opened a panel of ex-Muslim women. Six people were handed apostasy certificates, and the musician Shelley Segal played.

CHAPTER 03

Delaware says no, then yes

Four years later the day reached a legislature. Rep. Eric Morrison told the Delaware House that atheists in America "are often looked down upon and expected to remain silent regarding our beliefs", then asked it to designate March 23 as National Atheists Day.

The resolution failed, with 26 members voting against it. Several said the title was the problem and that a different one would have their vote. Three weeks later the legislature recognized March 30 as Atheist Awareness Day.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Snopes debunks the April joke

The fact-checking site rated false a widely forwarded story about a Florida judge naming April 1 the atheists' holiday.

Spain chooses a different day

Madrid's association of atheists and freethinkers picked March 14, Pi Day, for Spain's own day of atheism and freethought.

A countdown appears online

The Atheist Day campaign site went live with a countdown to the following March and its first partners listed.

The first March 23

The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain reported the date being marked around the world for the first time.

Delaware votes it down

A resolution to designate March 23 as National Atheists Day failed in the state House, 11 to 26.

A different name passes

Three weeks later Delaware recognized March 30 as Atheist Awareness Day instead.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why Atheist Day Matters

LAW

Unenforceable since 1961, and still printed in seven state constitutions.

Seven US state constitutions still name a belief in God as a qualification for public office, among them Texas, Maryland and Tennessee. The Supreme Court made those clauses unenforceable in 1961, and not one of the seven has taken the language back out.

SCOPE

The declaration defines itself narrowly

The founding document calls atheism a position on one very narrow question, the evidence for a god or gods, and claims nothing beyond it. It then invites religious people to take part, on the argument that supporting the day does not require sharing its answer.

NETWORK

Its endorsers include a first of its kind

Ateizm Derneği, founded in Istanbul in April 2014, is among the organizations that endorsed the declaration. The Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain described it at the time as the first legally recognized atheist organization of the Balkans, the Middle East and the Muslim-majority countries.

BY THE NUMBERS

Atheist Day by the Numbers

29%: US adults religiously unaffiliated
1.9B: Religiously unaffiliated worldwide, 2020
91: Countries with blasphemy laws
57%: World population under blasphemy laws
60%: Americans open to an atheist president

It's not about respecting ideas; it's about respecting people and their right to choose their own beliefs.

Atheist Day DeclarationAtheist Republic and its endorsing organizations

I'm not going to invest myself in a cause that is causeless.

PZ MyersBiologist, writing on Pharyngula on the first Atheist Day

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe Atheist Day

Wear the green circle

The organizers describe the circle as akin to a zero, standing for the absence of a belief in a god, with green for life and vitality. They also state plainly that the symbol is not trademarked, so anyone may reproduce it however they like.

POST

Post under the campaign hashtag

The declaration asks supporters to promote what it calls a unified coming out on social media under #AtheistDay. That hashtag is the campaign's own suggested form of taking part.

HOST

Host a dinner or join a local event

Alongside the awareness campaign, the declaration sets out a second theme it calls a celebration of life, to be marked with dinners, parties and concerts. It says events are organized at the city level rather than run from a single headquarters.

READ

Read the declaration in full

The founding text sets out what the coalition is asking for and names the organizations that endorsed it. Reading it settles what the day claims in the organizers' own words rather than in someone else's summary.

LOOK

Look up how the law works country by country

Humanists International publishes the Freedom of Thought Report, which tracks blasphemy and apostasy law nation by nation. Its 2024 edition counted a further 60 countries where those offenses can bring a prison sentence.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Atheist Day?

1 / 8

What does the green circle of the Atheist Day symbol represent?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing found anywhere, and the one legislature known to have voted on the March 23 designation, Delaware's House, rejected it in 2023.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

15sources

9primary records

15independently dated

Primary records

Atheist Republic2026-03

Atheist Day Declaration

The founding text declaring March 23, with its endorsing organizations listed.