For those of you who live outside the Silver State, yes, today is a holiday. It’s Nevada Day. And yes, this is a real holiday. Seriously. Almost no one is working at UNLV today, and most state offices, schools, and even some businesses are closed. The parking lots, which are usually overstuffed (a sore point with many students and faculty) are absolutely empty today.
Don’t believe me? Check out the Nevada Day website. If you want to celebrate, you can eat pancakes, go on a ghost walk, or try your luck in a beard contest.
When I first moved here, I thought this was a joke holiday, but people really do take it seriously. Most people celebrate only by having Halloween parties (the holiday is now celebrated on the last Friday in October), but very few Nevadans (or at least state employees) would be willing to defile the sanctity of Nevada Day by working. Many of them figure that if Sandy Koufax didn’t pitch game 1 in the 1965 World Series because of Yom Kippur, there’s no way that they’re coming in to work on Nevada Day.
I guess that makes me an agnostic Nevadan. That, or I’ve just got a lot of work to catch up on.
Anyway, wherever you are, enjoy our celebration of the 142 anniversary of Nevada statehood.