I had fun celebrating Shakespeare holidays this year. Somehow Shakespeare’s birthday (April 23) got turned into “Shakespeare Day” in general, complete with Talk Like Shakespeare in Chicago. And yesterday, the 400th anniversary of the publication of the sonnets, I declared Sonnet Day, and had a number of people forward it along saying “I didn’t realize today was Sonnet Day!” I’ll have to remember next year to crank out some greeting cards. What other good Shakespeare holidays can we come up with? I suppose March 15 (The Ides of March) is an obvious one, but a) people associate that more with Julius Caesar than with Shakespeare and b) it doesn’t exactly represent a happy day, now does it? Crispin’s Day? That’s a good one, although I suppose technically it’s already a holiday. Is it known what day Shakespeare got married? We could celebrate his anniversary. I see November 27, 1582 as the date of the marriage license. Also noticing that their first child Susanna was born on May 26, that’s coming up next week. Hard to make a case for her getting her own holiday, though :). What else?
How about April 18, “Venus and Adonis Day,” the date Shakespeare’s first published work was licensed by Richard Field (in 1593).