Holiday Calendar

Hug an Australian Day

Next celebratedMonday, April 26, 2027

The day's entire brief is one sentence, written by a Pennsylvania radio host: thanks for all the love and support the Aussies have given us. The word 'us' gives it away - April 26 was invented from outside Australia.

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Last updated September 6, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEApril 26
OBSERVED INInternationally
CATEGORYFun
SUBCATEGORYSilly
ORIGIN

Individual Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY
Thomas and Ruth Roy
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
“Thomas and Ruth Roy list the day on their own site and claim copyright in it. No founding year is documented.
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A novelty day with an owner and no birthday.

Hug an Australian Day is one of the novelty holidays credited to Thomas and Ruth Roy, who list it on their own site, Wellcat Holidays, and claim copyright in it along with the rest of their calendar. Their entry defines the whole day in a single sentence, as a way of thanking Australians for their support. No year is documented.

Read the creators' own entryvia wellcat.com
INTRO

A Pennsylvania radio host invented a day for Australians

Hug an Australian Day was invented by Thomas Roy, a Pennsylvania radio host who built a calendar of novelty holidays with his wife Ruth. CNN reported that creating this one is why Roy ended up on the Australian version of the Today show.

Salvos Online, published by The Salvation Army Australia, marked the day in 2025. Its writer, Fay Foster, introduced it to readers as "a day most of us have probably never heard of."

Foster then declined to recommend the obvious. "Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend grabbing the nearest Aussie for a hug," she wrote, "there are lots of things we could safely do to embrace the idea of a hug."

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ORIGINS

Hug an Australian Day history

INTRODUCTION

No published record gives the year Hug an Australian Day began. The pages its creators publish carry no year, and the day arrives in the archives already finished, with no announcement behind it.

What can be dated is the paper trail. The earliest surviving copy of the creators' holiday list was captured in May 1999. The day is already on it, described exactly as the site describes it now.

CHAPTER 01

A form in the back of a book

Thomas Roy was hunting material for his next morning show when he started leafing through Chase's Calendar of Events. The book was one of his regular sources. At the back he found a form inviting readers to submit holidays of their own.

What he sent in was Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day, and he did not expect anything to come of it. The next edition printed it. Roy told CNN he had started "on a lark."

CHAPTER 02

One sentence, never rewritten

Hug an Australian Day is one of the many days that followed the first, and it is very short. Its entire entry reads: "To show our great appreciation for all the love and support the Aussies have given us over the years." The listing adds no ritual and no instructions.

That wording has not moved. Captures of the Roys' site sampled across two decades carry it, and so does the page today. The word "us" is the tell, marking the thanks as coming from outside the country it thanks.

By 2001 the day had a page of its own on the site, and even that changed nothing about the description. Roy has since stopped adding to the calendar altogether. CNN reported in 2018 that his wife forbids it.

TIMELINE

Timeline

Earliest surviving record

The oldest archived copy of the Roys' holiday list, captured on 8 May, already carries the day at April 26 with the description the site still uses.

A page of its own

A page dedicated to the day appears on wellcat.com. Its earliest surviving capture dates from July.

A Canadian travel blog

Flight Centre Canada publishes a post on 26 April under the name Hug an Aussie Day, written by Alyssa Daniells.

CNN confirms the creator

CNN publishes a profile of the people who invent novelty holidays, independently confirming that Thomas Roy created this one.

An eyewear brand

QUAY publishes five suggested ways to mark the day, timed to the eve of 26 April.

An Australian publication

Salvos Online runs Fay Foster's article on the day itself, telling Australian readers what it is.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love Hug an Australian Day

Gatekeeper

About 100 holiday submissions arrive each year. Roughly a third get in.

Chase's Calendar of Events has been the reference on holidays and commemorations since the 1950s, and runs to 750 pages. Its editor-in-chief, Holly McGuire, told CNN the book took up the work after Congress stopped fielding requests to recognise new days in the mid-1990s. It receives about 100 submissions a year and accepts roughly a third, turning down anything that duplicates a day already listed, uses foul language, or reads as an obvious joke.

Ownership

A novelty day can have an owner

The Roys assert copyright over their calendar and ask anyone using it commercially to arrange a contract first, a notice their site has carried since at least 2003. Other days of theirs have been licensed on those terms. By their own account, Entenmann's Bakeries took exclusive rights to Eat What You Want Day for a month to launch a snack line, and Day's Inns took temporary rights to Be Bald And Be Free Day so Willard Scott could mention it in a commercial.

Unsponsored

Nobody is actually running it

No sponsoring organisation, registrar, hashtag or campaign sits behind Hug an Australian Day. The organisations that have marked it are unconnected to the Roys and to each other: a travel agency in Canada, an eyewear label, and a Salvation Army publication in Australia. Whatever reach the day has, it has without anyone steering it.

GOOD TO KNOW

The other days on the Roys' calendar

Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo-Day, February 20

At noon local time, people are asked to go outdoors and yell "Hoodie-Hoo" to chase off winter and make ready for spring, a month away.

Panic Day, March 9

Run around all day in a panic, telling everyone you cannot handle it any more. The listing credits a co-sponsor: the Sky is Falling Committee.

Pet Owner's Independence Day, April 18

Dog and cat owners take the day off and the pets go to work in their place, on the grounds that most pets are jobless and sleep all day.

No Socks Day, May 8

Give up socks for one day and there is a little less laundry, which the entry offers as a contribution to the betterment of the environment.

Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbors' Porch Day, August 8

Filed under overzealous planting. Citizens are asked to leave baskets of surplus squash on their neighbours' doorsteps.

Humbug Day, December 21

A vent for everyone worn down by Christmas preparations. The entry sets a limit of twelve humbugs.

I remember thinking, 'This is insane.' You spread this insane idea and people buy into it.
Thomas Roycreator of Hug an Australian Day
We're kind of like a dictionary. We look at what people observe.
Holly McGuireeditor-in-chief, Chase's Calendar of Events

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate Hug an Australian Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Ask before you hug anyone

The Australian writer who covered the day at length would not endorse the obvious approach. "Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend grabbing the nearest Aussie for a hug," Fay Foster wrote in Salvos Online, before adding that if you know someone who would love one, give them a big warm one. Start with the people who want in.

WIDEN

Widen what counts as an Aussie

Foster's suggestion, and the easiest way around the consent problem entirely: an Aussie does not have to be a person. It could be an animal, a building, a place, a barbie or a dunny, or any other piece of Australian culture you are fond of.

DRIVE

Drive somewhere that feels Australian to you

Rather than hunting for a person to embrace, Foster suggests inviting a friend on a walk or a drive to somewhere you both think of as true-blue Australian. A beach, the bush, or a country town all qualify.

INCLUDE

Include someone who has just arrived

Foster's best line is about who gets left out. When you are working out who to invite, remember the people for whom Australia can still feel foreign, the ones who arrived recently or do not yet speak the language.

READ

Read the day's entire official text

It takes about ten seconds. The whole of Hug an Australian Day, as written by the people who came up with it, is one sentence on their own website, sitting directly below Pet Owner's Independence Day.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know Hug an Australian Day?

1 / 8

Who is credited with creating Hug an Australian Day?

Answer

No. Hug an Australian Day appears nowhere on the Fair Work Ombudsman's public-holiday list for any Australian state or territory, so it carries no day off of its own.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

10sources
6primary records
7independently dated
Primary records
Wellcat Herbs
Wellcat Holidays
The creators' own listing of the day at April 26, carrying its complete one-sentence definition, the copyright and trademark notice in Thomas and Ruth Roy's names, and the full roster of neighbouring Wellcat days.
View source
Internet Archive1999-05-08
Wellcat's Quirky Holidays (wellcat.com/holiday.html), capture of 8 May 1999
The earliest surviving copy of the Roys' holiday list. It already carries Hug an Australian Day at April 26 with the same one-sentence description the live site uses today.
View source
Internet Archive2003-04-04
Hug an Australian Day (wellcat.com/april/hug_an_australian_day.htm), capture of 4 April 2003
The day's own page on the creators' site, carrying their copyright notice and their request that anyone using the holidays commercially arrange a contract first.
View source
Fair Work Ombudsman2026
2026 public holidays
The Australian government's complete public-holiday list for every state and territory, used here to establish that Hug an Australian Day is not a public holiday in any Australian jurisdiction.
View source
Wellcat Herbs
About Us...
The Roys' own account of how their holidays began, including the submission form at the back of Chase's Calendar of Events and the licensing deals struck by Entenmann's Bakeries and Day's Inns for other days on the list.
View source
National Hugging Day
National Hugging Day tm - January 21
The official site of the separate January observance, used here only to confirm its date and distinguish it from this day.
View source
Additional coverage
CNN2018-02-26
Anyone can make up a holiday. This woman made up 1,900
Doug Criss's profile of the people who invent novelty holidays. It independently names Thomas Roy as the creator of Hug an Australian Day, reports the Australian television appearance that followed, and quotes Chase's editor-in-chief Holly McGuire on the book's submission volume and acceptance rate.
View source
Salvos Online2025-04-25
You little ripper, it's Hug an Australian Day
Fay Foster's article for the Salvation Army's Australian publication, marking the day for local readers, declining to recommend hugging strangers, and suggesting ways to observe it that do not require a willing stranger.
View source
QUAY2022-04-25
5 Ways to Celebrate Hug an Australian Day
A dated example of brand pickup, published by the eyewear label on the eve of the 2022 observance.
View source
Flight Centre Canada2017-04-26
It's Hug An Aussie Day! Here's Who We're Hugging (And Not)
Alyssa Daniells's travel-blog post marking the day in Canada, and the source for the shortened name Hug an Aussie Day.
View source
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