By Tim Binnall
In the pantheon of odd and obscure holidays, October 20th stands out as a date which may be of particular interest to paranormal enthusiasts as it happens to be National Sasquatch Awareness Day. The concept was first proposed back in 2009 by way of a Change.org petition, presumably meant to mark the anniversary of the filming of the iconic Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film on October 20th, 1967. Although the idea initially received middling support online, it has since slowly grown over time, not unlike the legend of Bigfoot itself.
This year, the burgeoning holiday caught the attention of Oregon television station KPTV, who dispatched reporter Joe Vithayathil to The North American Bigfoot Center which is located in the ironically named city of Boring and helmed by 'Finding Bigfoot' star Cliff Barackman. Reflecting on the impact of the Patterson-Gimlin movie, he mused that the footage was "the best and the first footage obtained of a Sasquatch and its one of the only ones that holds up to that level even now."
Meanwhile, indicative of how October 20th holds a special place in Sasquatch lore, Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts signed a proclamation recognizing the date as 'Bigfoot Crossroads of Nebraska Day.' Honored as part of the decree is Harriett McFeely, who operates a museum devoted to the cryptid in the city of Hastings that made headlines earlier this year when it acquired a flag believed to have been shredded and braided by Bigfoot.
Although National Sasquatch Awareness Day has yet to achieve the level of notoriety afforded to Extraterrestrial Culture Day or World UFO Day, which is inexplicably two separate dates, it's likely only a matter of time until it becomes as much a part of the paranormal calendar as those aforementioned celebrations once word about it grows. To that end, it would seem that perhaps the only thing holding the holiday back is, ironically, a lack of awareness that it exists.