Holiday Calendar

National Paranormal Day

Next celebratedMonday, May 3, 2027

A US observance on May 3 dedicated to exploring belief in unexplained phenomena, including ghosts, psychic claims, cryptids, and reported hauntings.

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Last updated March 18, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEMay 3
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYFun
SUBCATEGORYParanormal
ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY
Not documented
FIRST OBSERVED
Not documented
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A modern day for a very old fascination.

National Paranormal Day has no documented founder. It circulates as a community and social-media observance on May 3, a date that coincides with the death of anomaly writer Charles Fort, though no source documents that the date was chosen for him.

+ Know the story? Submit a founder Help us complete this holiday
INTRO

A movement of millions that began with a cracked toe joint

In 1888, a woman stood on a New York stage and explained how she had fooled the world. Margaret Fox told the New York World that the famous "spirit raps" she and her sister produced as girls were a trick. She made them by cracking her toe and knuckle joints, and she demonstrated the method on stage.

By then it was too late to undo what those raps had started. The sisters' 1848 sessions in Hydesville had helped launch modern Spiritualism, a movement that grew to millions. National Paranormal Day sits in that long, strange tradition: a US observance about belief in the unexplained, and about the people who have tried to test it.

The interest is not fringe. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 65% of US adults said they believe in spirits or unseen spiritual forces. The day is a chance to look at what people report, what the record shows, and where the two part ways.

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ORIGINS

Paranormal Day history

INTRODUCTION

For most of human history, reports of the unexplained had no court to be heard in. People told stories of noises, apparitions, and presences, and there was no method to test them. The 1800s changed that, and the change ran in two directions at once: belief became a mass movement, and skepticism became an organized one.

A single American household lit the fuse. In March 1848, sisters Maggie and Kate Fox said a spirit answered them with knocking sounds in their Hydesville, New York, home. Séances became a craze, and a movement that would reach millions took shape within a few years.

CHAPTER 01

A craze, then a confession

The believers had the numbers, but the founding episode held a twist. In 1888, Maggie Fox confessed the raps were a hoax and showed how she made them. She recanted a year later, in 1889, yet the movement she helped start had already spread worldwide.

CHAPTER 02

Science takes the case

Spiritualism's popularity drew serious investigators. In February 1882, a group of scholars founded the Society for Psychical Research in London. Cambridge philosopher Henry Sidgwick served as its first president, with Frederic Myers and Edmund Gurney among the founders.

The SPR tried to count and measure what people experienced. Its Census of Hallucinations, published in 1894, is widely reported to have surveyed about 17,000 people. Decades later, J.B. Rhine took the work into the lab at Duke University. His 1934 book Extra-Sensory Perception popularized the term ESP and tested it with Zener cards.

CHAPTER 03

The skeptics push back

Not everyone was convinced, and some pushed back hard. Through the 1920s, the magician Harry Houdini attended séances in disguise to expose fraudulent mediums. He testified before Congress in 1926 in support of outlawing fortune-telling for hire in Washington, D.C.

The skeptical thread reached the government too. A US remote-viewing program ran from 1977. A 1995 evaluation, commissioned by the CIA, found no demonstrated value for intelligence work, and the roughly $20 million program was terminated.

CHAPTER 04

An old subject, a new day

National Paranormal Day is the recent chapter in this story. The observance has no documented founder and no governing body. It circulates online and on holiday calendars each May 3, a date that happens to fall on the day Charles Fort died in 1932. Fort spent his life cataloguing anomalies in books like The Book of the Damned, though no source shows the date was chosen for him.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Paranormal Day Matters

BELIEF

Belief in the unexplained is the rule, not the exception.

A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that 83% of US adults say people have a soul or spirit. The day gives that broad, documented belief a fixed point to examine rather than dismiss.

INQUIRY

It treats the unexplained as something to study

The paranormal is often filed under fear or fun. The observance reframes it as a subject people have tried to test rather than only to enjoy or avoid, which is a more useful lens for a curious reader.

LANGUAGE

It keeps a useful word alive

The adjective Fortean, for phenomena that resist easy explanation, still shapes how people talk about the strange. Naming a category is part of how any field decides what is worth a second look.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Paranormal Day by the Numbers

73%
US adults: believe one paranormal item (2005)
57.7%
US adults: believe places can be haunted (2018)
41%
US adults: say ghosts exist (2021)
66%
US adults: generally skeptical of the paranormal (2025)

TIMELINE

Timeline

The raps begin in Hydesville

In Hydesville, New York, the Fox sisters' reported spirit rappings spark the modern Spiritualism movement.

Faraday tests the moving table

Michael Faraday's table-turning experiments show that unconscious muscle movement, not spirits, moves the table.

Scientists form the SPR

The Society for Psychical Research is founded in London under Henry Sidgwick to study psychic claims systematically.

Maggie Fox confesses

Margaret Fox publicly confesses to the New York World that the raps were faked by cracking joints, then recants in 1889.

Rhine publishes ESP study

J.B. Rhine publishes Extra-Sensory Perception at Duke, launching experimental parapsychology and popularizing the term ESP.

Stargate program shut down

A CIA-commissioned evaluation finds no intelligence value in remote viewing, and the long-running Stargate program is terminated.

MYTH VS FACT

Common Misconceptions

The myth

A Ouija board planchette moves because spirits are guiding it.

The truth

The motion is explained by the ideomotor effect, unconscious muscle movement first demonstrated by Michael Faraday in 1853 in his table-turning experiments.

The myth

Waking to a paralyzing presence pressing on you proves a ghost or demon was in the room.

The truth

This matches sleep paralysis with hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations, the cross-cultural night-visitor or Old Hag experience documented by sleep researchers.

The myth

A sudden chill, unease, or sense of being watched in a room signals a haunting.

The truth

Vic Tandy traced such feelings in his own lab in 1998 to infrasound near 19 Hz, a low-frequency standing wave below the range of normal hearing.

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Paranormal Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Read the history behind the headlines

Start with the Fox sisters and the rise of Spiritualism to see how the modern movement began. Tracing the record helps separate what is documented from what is repeated.

EXPLORE

Explore how researchers tested the claims

Look into the work of the Society for Psychical Research and the Duke parapsychology lab. Seeing how investigators designed their studies is more revealing than any single result.

LEARN

Learn the everyday explanations

Read about sleep paralysis, the ideomotor effect, and infrasound. Knowing the mundane mechanisms makes the reported experiences more interesting, not less.

VISIT

Visit a local site with a documented past

Tour a historic building, museum, or cemetery and ask the staff for its verified history. Real records often turn out stranger than the ghost stories.

DISCUSS

Discuss belief without scoring points

Trade experiences and questions with friends who land on different sides. The day works best as an open conversation rather than a debate to be won.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Paranormal Day?

1 / 8

What did Margaret Fox confess in 1888 about the famous spirit raps?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance, not a public or federal holiday, so banks, schools, and offices stay open and it is a normal working day.

COLOPHON

Sources

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

10sources
6primary records
5independently dated
Primary records
Pew Research Center2023-12-07
Spiritual Beliefs
2023 survey on US adults' belief in souls, spirits, and unseen spiritual forces.
View source
Gallup2005
Three in Four Americans Believe in Paranormal
2005 poll measuring US belief across ten paranormal items, including ghosts and ESP.
View source
Gallup2025
Paranormal Phenomena Met With Skepticism in U.S.
2025 poll finding most US adults generally skeptical of paranormal claims.
View source
Chapman University2018-10-16
Paranormal America 2018
2018 Survey of American Fears reporting belief in hauntings, aliens, and Bigfoot.
View source
YouGov2021
Americans Say Ghosts Exist and One in Five Has Seen One
2021 poll on US belief in ghosts and personal ghost encounters by gender.
View source
Society for Psychical Research
Our History
The SPR's account of its 1882 founding, leaders, and early census work.
View source
Additional coverage
Smithsonian Magazine
The Fox Sisters and the Rap on Spiritualism
Account of the 1848 Hydesville rappings and Maggie Fox's 1888 hoax confession.
View source
Smithsonian Magazine
For Harry Houdini, Seances and Spiritualism Were Just an Illusion
Houdini's 1920s campaign exposing fraudulent mediums and his 1926 testimony to Congress.
View source
Wikipedia
Stargate Project (U.S. Army unit)
History of the US remote-viewing program and its 1995 CIA-commissioned evaluation.
View source
Britannica
Ideomotor effect
Definition of the ideomotor effect and Faraday's 1853 table-turning experiment.
View source
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