Do you take pleasure in watching the people around you be miserable? Have you ever been described as a curmudgeon? Do rainbows make you sick to your stomach? Do you live in a garbage can?
If you answered yes to any of those questions congratulations! Tuesday is National Grouch Day; a holiday inspired by "Sesame Street's" resident crank Oscar the Grouch.
"A Grouch's mission in life is to be as miserable and grouchy as possible, and pass that feeling on to everyone else," the Muppet Wiki explains. "Only then will a Grouch feel in touch with his or her world and be happy. Yet, even though a Grouch may show happiness at anyone's misfortune (including his or her own), a Grouch would never admit to being happy. Such is the stability of a Grouch's life: so balanced, and yet so unbalanced."
For the other 364 days of the year grouches are encouraged to try their best to keep their sour attitudes to themselves but on Oct. 15 they are encouraged to rain gloom upon the cheerful people in their lives, it is, after all, the only way that grouches celebrate.
"What a perfectly rotten day! Today is National Grouch Day!" the holiday's Facebook page proclaims. "It is as good a day as any other to confront the Pollyannas of the world. When someone says, 'Good morning!' respond with, 'What's good about it?' If asked, 'How are you feeling?' reply with, 'None of your business.' When someone inquires 'What time is it?' tell them to go buy a watch."
The delightful irony of this made-up holiday is that the malcontents who this holiday was created to celebrate are the least likely to want to celebrate any holiday at all.
There are a few ways that one could celebrate National Grouch Day. One way would be to try and defeat the grouch with in you as recommended by an article on Health.com. They recommend scheduling a short amount of time in a day to be crabby, eating happy food and other ideas to help people be a little less grouchy.
E! came up with a plan that takes an opposite approach and embraces the inner grouch.
"Step 1: Don't celebrate. That's it," the website said. "Seriously, don't celebrate. Grouches hate celebrating."
If all the negativity is a bit much for you just remember, even Grouches have things that they love, it just might happen to be garbage.
