Esther Day, August 3rd, celebrates love, especially non-romantic love.
Today I honor the memory of Esther Earl by asking you, “When was the last time you told someone you loved them?”
Now consider, when was the last time you told someone who wasn’t your significant other you loved them?
Esther believed in expressing our love for those in our lives with whom we have other than romantic relationships. We even have a holiday for it, Esther Day, celebrated on August 3rd (her birthday) since 2010.
Celebrating Esther Day
I missed getting this blog out before the holiday, but let’s just use all of August for celebrating Esther Day together, shall we?
It’s simple to celebrate – tell those who are important to you in your life that you love them.
Of course, you can go all out and include special food, costumes, and rituals like we talked about in “The Revival of Sacred Social Days” post. You can even join her family and friends who run the charity organization created in her honor, This Star Won’t Go Out, who host an online celebration on August 3rd every year.
You can also listen to Mix Tape Journey’s special Esther Day 2024 Side A mix tape in honor of Esther which drops on August 11th.
Who is Esther Earl?
“Who is this Esther Earl who has her own holiday?” you ask. She became the inspiration for the main character Hazel in John Green’s best-selling book The Fault in Our Stars which also was made into a film you may have watched.
Before she became that inspiration, she was a teenager who was part of Nerdfighteria, a community who believes in fighting world suck, and promoting education, freedom of speech and the use of the intellect in modern society. This is the community that organically sprung up around the Vlogbrother’s (John and his brother Hank Green’s) videos.
Nerdfighteria is just the kind of example of community and connection creating social value that I love to highlight here at Social Seahorse Connections. People like Esther and communities like Nerdfighteria show us all the positive impacts that can happen when we take a few moments to connect meaningfully with others.
Our society puts a lot of pressure on us to find and maintain romantic love with only an occasional nod to platonic love. Yet, we have far more non-romantic relationships in our lives to nourish.
Esther knew the importance of those relationships, and, she embodied the motto of Nerdfighteria, “Don’t Forget to Be Awesome (DFTBA),” by inspiring others to connect in meaningful ways as well.
Origin of Esther Day
In the August 3, 2024, Vlogbrother post, John Green explains the day’s origin, “So back in 2010, our community came together to create a holiday on the birthday of Nerdfighter Esther Earl. Esther was dying of cancer, and we asked her what kind of holiday she would want us to celebrate in her honor, and she said she would like a holiday where we celebrate love, especially the kinds of non-romantic love that often, you know, don't get included in our conversations about love.”
Ever since, the Nerdfighteria community has joined in celebrating Esther Day.
Let’s join them.
Golden Connection Challenge:
Tell someone that you love them in honor of Esther. Maybe share some music as well or watch The Fault in Our Stars together.
I’d love to hear about your experiences with a comment here or email me using the contact form.