It's that time of year! The time for family, friends, counting blessings and expressing gratitude, and of course… FOUNDING YOUR OWN COUNTRY (haha, you thought I was going to say food, didn't you :p )! That's right, November 22nd is National Start Your Own Country Day… and Thanksgiving… at the same time! I know what you are thinking, "kinda crazy", am I right? But I personally think it's pretty cool! Imagine what it would be like to stand on top of your own mountain, looking down over the land that you have created from the ground up (literally), all the while holding a hefty turkey leg in your hand.

I don't know about you… but that sounds pretty FREAKING COOL to me!

Here's a little more background for you…

"According to multiple online sources, Start Your Own Country Day was created at the 1939 New York World's Fair, to honor "those free-spirited souls who dared to hope and believe in a better world where they too could declare any land their own." Indeed, the exhibits of the fair were meant to showcase the "World of Tomorrow," so in a sense, the fair was exhibiting what a country in the future may look like. However, we were unable to find any sources contemporaneous to the time of the fair to corroborate that the day was created there.

The day is meant to get you thinking about starting your own country and what needs to be done if you want to do so. The Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, signed in 1933, says that countries need to meet four criteria to be recognized internationally: they need territory, a government, a permanent population, and the ability to have relations with other states. But, many micro-nations have been created, many of which do not meet all of these criteria. Many of their creators still consider them as countries and don't care if others see them as such. A few examples of micro-nations are The Principality of New Utopia, Kugelmugel, and The Principality of Hutt River.

Start Your Own Country Day, also known as National Start Your Own Country Day, is observed next on Thursday, November 22nd, 2018. It has been observed annually on November 22nd since 1939." (Checkiday.com)

Cool stuff, huh? Also... on a real note, this key piece of the quotation really speaks to me, "'...to honor "those free-spirited souls who dared to hope and believe in a better world where they too could declare any land their own." Indeed, the exhibits of the fair were meant to showcase the "World of Tomorrow",...'" (Chekiday.com). That's a really nice thought, isn't it? And when you think about, how fitting that this Holiday also just so happens to fall on the same day as Thanksgiving?

It's like one of those perfect pairings — imagining and creating a new world full of possibility, founded on the day of gratitude and thankfulness.

An entire nation, a new world, founded on peace, gratitude, and thankfulness for blessings… that sounds pretty cool to me.