Monkey Day is an unofficial international holiday celebrated on December 14. The holiday was created and popularized in 2000 by artists Casey Sorrow and

Eric Millikin Eric Millikin is an American contemporary art, artist and Activism, activist based in Detroit, Michigan, and Richmond, Virginia. He is known for his work in artificial intelligence art, Virtual art, augmented and virtual reality art, conceptual a ...

when they were art students at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

. Monkey Day celebrates

monkey Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...

s and "all things

simian The simians, anthropoids, or higher primates are an infraorder (Simiiformes ) of primates containing all animals traditionally called monkeys and apes. More precisely, they consist of the parvorders New World monkey, Platyrrhini (New World mon ...

", including other non-human

primate Primates is an order (biology), order of mammals, which is further divided into the Strepsirrhini, strepsirrhines, which include lemurs, galagos, and Lorisidae, lorisids; and the Haplorhini, haplorhines, which include Tarsiiformes, tarsiers a ...

s such as

ape Apes (collectively Hominoidea ) are a superfamily of Old World simians native to sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (though they were more widespread in Africa, most of Asia, and Europe in prehistory, and counting humans are found global ...

tarsier Tarsiers ( ) are haplorhine primates of the family Tarsiidae, which is the lone extant family within the infraorder Tarsiiformes. Although the group was prehistorically more globally widespread, all of the existing species are restricted to M ...

s, and

lemur Lemurs ( ; from Latin ) are Strepsirrhini, wet-nosed primates of the Superfamily (biology), superfamily Lemuroidea ( ), divided into 8 Family (biology), families and consisting of 15 genera and around 100 existing species. They are Endemism, ...

s. Monkey Day is celebrated worldwide and often also known as World Monkey Day and International Monkey Day.

Origins

Monkey Day was created and popularized by artists Casey Sorrow (an internationally published illustrator and printmaker) and

(a Pulitzer Prize winning occult and artificial intelligence artist), beginning in 2000 when they were both art students at

. Sorrow jokingly scribbled Monkey Day on a friend's calendar,McKenzie, Charlie (December 8, 2005).
Holiday monkey business
". ''

Hour An hour (symbol: h; also abbreviated hr) is a unit of time historically reckoned as of a day and defined contemporarily as exactly 3,600 seconds ( SI). There are 60 minutes in an hour, and 24 hours in a day. The hour was initially establis ...

''Klein, Sarah (December 10, 2003).
Monkeying around with the holidays
. ''

Detroit Metro Times The ''Detroit Metro Times'' is a progressive alternative weekly newspaper located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in the metro Detroit area. The ''Metro Times'' was an official sponsor of the now-defunct Det ...

'' and then they first celebrated the holiday with other MSU art students, creating monkey artwork, wearing monkey costumes and imitating monkey behavior. The holiday continued to gain notoriety every year as Sorrow and Millikin included Monkey Day in their artwork and

alternative comics Alternative comics or independent comics cover a range of American comic book, American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alterna ...

that they published online and exhibited internationally along with other artists.Sorrow, Casey (December 14, 2006).
2006 Comics... It begins...
. ''Monkey Day Comics'' Since then, Monkey Day has been widely celebrated across countries such as the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

, the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

, and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Laverne, Lauren (December 14, 2009).
BBC Radio with Lauren Laverne
. ''

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

Hallmark Cards Hallmark Cards, Inc. is a Privately held company, privately held, family-owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri. Founded in 1910 by Joyce Hall, Hallmark is one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of greeting cards in the United ...

describes the holiday as a "day when monkey business is actually encouraged." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' describes Monkey Day as a day to "learn something about these adorable and highly intelligent primates. Or you could use this day to act like a monkey." Monkey Day is particularly popular among animal rights and environmental activists, and visual artists and arts institutions. Monkey Day's celebrants and supporters include

Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall; 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English zoologist, Primatology, primatologist and Anthropology, anthropologist. She is considered the world's foremo ...

Greenpeace Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by a group of Environmental movement, environmental activists. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth to nurture life in all its biod ...

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

, the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

in London, the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...

Museum, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, and the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Traditional celebrations

Zoo and animal sanctuary events

Many zoos hold annual Monkey Day events. For example, the

Lahore Zoo Lahore Zoo ( Punjabi: , ) in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan, established in 1872, is one of the largest zoos in Pakistan. It is currently managed by the Forest, Wildlife and Fisheries department of the Government of Pakistan. Today the zoo houses a coll ...

in Pakistan holds an annual World Monkey Day celebration that includes art competitions and educational events about monkeys, including over a hundred children wearing monkey masks, poetry readings about monkeys, and performances to highlight monkey evolution as well as the threats monkeys face. The Tallinn Zoo in Estonia celebrates Monkey Day by auctioning artwork created by chimpanzees and performing intelligence tests on

Japanese macaque The Japanese macaque (''Macaca fuscata''), also known as the snow monkey, is a terrestrial Old World monkey species that is native to Japan. Colloquially, they are referred to as "snow monkeys" because some live in areas where snow covers the g ...

s. The Indira Gandhi Zoological Park in India organizes Monkey Day programs to educate children about wildlife issues and encourage people to adopt monkeys. The Faruk Yalçın Zoo and Botanical Park in

Darıca Darıca (, from the Byzantine Greek, Byzantine τὰ Ῥίτζιον) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of Kocaeli Province, Turkey. The town was previously known as Aretsou (Αρετσού) in by its native Greek population. Its ...

, Turkey, hosts Monkey Day events to draw attention to declining monkey populations. The

Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo (), formerly the Scottish National Zoological Park, is an non-profit zoological park in the Corstorphine area of Edinburgh, Scotland. The zoo is positioned on the south-facing slopes of Corstorphine Hill, giving extensive vie ...

in Scotland uses Monkey Day events including monkey story telling to raise awareness of the dangers that primates face worldwide. Since 2009, the Colombian Association Primatological ''APC'' (for its acronym in Spanish) has celebrated Monkey Day. During the week of Monkey Day, the

National Zoo & Aquarium The National Zoo and Aquarium is a privately owned zoo and aquarium in the Australian capital city of Canberra. It is located in Yarralumla at the western end of Lake Burley Griffin, next to Scrivener Dam. A major expansion opened in May 2017, ...

in Australia holds a range of activities and educational talks, raising awareness for all primates and raising money for conserving critically endangered species like Cotton-top Tamarins in Columbia. The Zoo Debrecen in Hungary celebrates Monkey Day by allowing visitors to share meals with

tufted capuchin The tufted capuchin (''Sapajus apella''), also known as brown capuchin, black-capped capuchin, or pin monkey, is a New World primate from South America and the Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Margarita. As traditionally defined, it is one of t ...

s and

mantled guereza The mantled guereza (''Colobus guereza''), also known simply as the guereza, the eastern black-and-white colobus, or the Abyssinian black-and-white colobus, is a black-and-white colobus, a type of Old World monkey. It is native to much of west ...

Art exhibitions

Prominent artists like Sorrow, Millikin,

Rob Balder Robert T. Balder is a professional cartoonist and singer-songwriter. He graduated from Roanoke College with a major in English in 1993 and, after a variety of jobs, entered a seven-year career in IT, starting as a manager of database development ...

, and David Malki have created Monkey Day themed comics and artwork.Sorrow, Casey (December 16, 2005).
The End of Monkey WebComics 2005
. ''Monkey Day Comics'' For Monkey Day 2012, Millikin created ''The 12 Stars of Monkey Day'', a series of paintings published by ''

USA Weekend ''USA Weekend'' was an American weekend newspaper magazine published from 1953 to 2014. Founded as ''Family Weekly,'' it was purchased in 1985 by the Gannett Company, which turned it into a sister publication to Gannett's flagship newspaper '' ...

'' that were "in part inspired by the many pioneering

space monkeys The Space Monkeys are an English alternative band, formed in Middleton, Greater Manchester in 1995. The band consisted of Richard McNevin-Duff, Tony Pipes, Dom Morrison and Chas Morrison. After working with the band for a number years, Neil W ...

who rode into the stars on rockets, leading the way for human space flight."Millikin, Eric (December 12, 2012).
The 12 Stars of Monkey Day
". ''

'' In 2013,

created a

mail art Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the mail, postal service. It developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School and ...

series where he mailed Monkey Day cards to strangers, including Koko the sign-language gorilla and President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

.Millikin, Eric (December 12, 2013).
Eric Millikin sends Monkey Day cards to strangers
. ''Detroit Free Press'' For Monkey Day 2014, Millikin created a 3D monkey experience. Since 2016, Millikin has created the ''Danger Beast'' series of

street art Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art. Street art has evolved from the early forms of defiant gr ...

portraits of endangered animals created out of endangered plants, including a portrait of

Harambe Harambe ( ; May 27, 1999 – May 28, 2016) was a western lowland gorilla who lived at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, Cincinnati Zoo. On May 28, 2016, a three-year-old boy visiting the zoo climbed under a fence into an outdoor gorilla ...

the gorilla made from

Venus flytrap The Venus flytrap (''Dionaea muscipula'') is a carnivorous plant native to the temperate and subtropical wetlands of North Carolina and South Carolina, on the East Coast of the United States. Although various modern hybrids have been created ...

s. In addition to his monkey-themed artwork, Sorrow also maintains a comprehensive "Monkeys in the News" blog with stories on topics like monkey attacks, monkey smuggling, and monkey science. Every Monkey Day, Sorrow's "Monkeys in the News" blog counts down the previous year's "top 10 Monkey and Primate News highlights".Sorrow, Casey. (December 14, 2012).
Happy Monkey Day 2012!
. ''Monkeys In The News''

Fundraising

Often, Monkey Day celebrations involve raising money for primate-related issues. In 2008, the official Monkey Day celebrations included an art show and silent auction to benefit the Chimps Inc. animal sanctuary; the show and auction included art by human artists as well as paintings from chimps Jackson and Kimie, residents of the sanctuary. The Biddle Gallery in Detroit also celebrated Monkey Day in 2008 with an annual Monkey Day art sale that included a free banana with each purchase. For 2013, the

International Primate Protection League The International Primate Protection League (IPPL) is a not-for-profit animal welfare organization founded in 1973 in Thailand by Shirley McGreal. IPPL's main focus is to promote the conservation and protection around the world of all non-huma ...

celebrated Monkey Day and raised money for conservation by offering life-drawing classes where people could learn to draw portraits of Gary the

gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical forests from eastern Bangladesh and Northeast Indi ...

.Strong, Sharon (December 9, 2013).
Celebrate Monkey Day: Paint it Forward for IPPL
. ''Charleston Patch''(December 5, 2013).
Painting for Primates on International Monkey Day
". ''International Primate Protection League''

says "Monkey Day is the perfect time to swing into action and help protect primate habitat by becoming a forest defender."

Parties

The holiday is also celebrated with costume parties intended to help draw attention to issues related to

s, including medical research, animal rights, and

evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...

. Often there are competitions to see who has the best costumes, who can act like a monkey the longest or perform the most amusing impression of one, or speed

knitting Knitting is a method for production of textile Knitted fabric, fabrics by interlacing yarn loops with loops of the same or other yarns. It is used to create many types of garments. Knitting may be done Hand knitting, by hand or Knitting machi ...

of monkey dolls.GateHouse News Service (Dec, 14, 2010).
Morning Minutes for Tuesday, December 14
. ''Herkimer Telegram'' Other Monkey Day activities include going on shopping sprees for

Paul Frank Paul Frank (full name Paul Frank Sunich, born August 29, 1967, in Huntington Beach, California) is an American advertising artist and fashion designer. He is the creator of all the characters from Paul Frank Industries, including Julius the mon ...

"Julius the Monkey" fashions, eating

Ben & Jerry's Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings Inc., trading and commonly known as Ben & Jerry's, is an American company that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, and sorbet. Founded in 1978 in Burlington, Vermont, the company went from a single ice cream p ...

Chunky Monkey ice cream, and spending the day at the zoo.Brenner, Lisa (December 14, 2010).
Party Like Rhesus Witherspoon: Today Is Monkey Day!.
". ''

LAist KPCC ( FM 89.3) – branded LAist 89.3 – is a non-commercial educational radio station licensed in Pasadena, California. KPCC itself is primarily serving Greater Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley; through rebroadcating and translat ...

'' Often when monkeys cause trouble, such as a monkey driving away in a stolen bus, the monkey is said to be honoring the traditions of Monkey Day.

Movies and music

Films and music about monkeys and other nonhuman primates are popular at Monkey Day events. In 2005,

Peter Jackson Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand filmmaker. He is best known as the director, writer, and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy (2012–2014), both of which ar ...

's ''

King Kong King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...

'' was released on the fifth anniversary of Monkey Day. For Monkey Day 2014, the creators of '' Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb'' released a short feature starring Crystal the Monkey. Mainstream American films like ''King Kong'' and ''

Planet of the Apes ''Planet of the Apes'' is a science fiction media franchise consisting of films, books, television series, comics, and other media about a Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic world in which humans and intelligent apes c ...

'' films are popular at Monkey Day parties,The Times Leader (Dec, 10, 2012).
FIVE THINGS TO KNOW THIS WEEK: Monkey Day, a piece of cake, and Gollum's 'precious'
". ''

Times Leader The ''Times Leader'' is a privately owned newspaper in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Founding Founded in 1879, it was locally owned until being purchased by Capital Cities in 1978. Early history On November 27, 1907, the ''Wilkes-Barre Times ...

'', pg. 1A as well as

monkey Kung Fu Monkey kung fu or Hóu Quán (猴拳, "monkey fist") is a Chinese martial arts, Chinese martial art which utilizes ape or monkey-like movements as part of its technique. Northern Chinese martial arts such as Northern Praying Mantis and Wuzuqua ...

films like ''Lady Iron Monkey''. Monkey-themed songs, such as Major Lance's "

The Monkey Time "The Monkey Time" is a song written by Curtis Mayfield and performed by Major Lance. It reached No. 2 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, U.S. R&B chart, No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100, U.S. pop chart, and No. 32 in CHUM Chart, Canada in 1963. It was ...

" and

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

song " Monkey Man", are also part of Monkey Day festivities.Jackson, Ashawnta. (December 4, 2012).
A December Holiday Playlist (No, Not That Holiday)
". ''

WNYC WNYC is an audio service brand, under the control of New York Public Radio, a non-profit organization. Radio and other audio programming is primarily provided by a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations: WNYC (AM) and WNYC- ...

References

{{Apes December observances Unofficial observances Monkeys in popular culture Apes in popular culture