Posted by Tshirt Laundry on 12/8/2010
to
Misc.
I can barely contain my excitement knowing that December is finally here! While
there’s an assortment of fantastic holidays this time of year, the best part is
that it’s actually National Beard Month! And to commemorate this joyous season
it’s now (somewhat) socially acceptable to quit shaving, which is great for me
because I’ll be better defended against the freezing Chicago winter winds. For
the next 31 days I will not shave my beard in order to better understand the meaning of National Beard Month (which
will now on be referred to as NBM).
NBM was founded
sometime between 680AD and 1860AD. During those days beards were often grown for
fertility purposes, proving manliness, as well as denoting one’s social class. Sometime after the Franco-Persian wars (but before the Persian-Franco war),
beards were outlawed by the ruling classes of England, Spain, and Europe because they were considered a threat to the royal
families’ power due to “grave unsightliness”. This led to a series of rebellions
across the known world, all countries rallying under the banner of beard
freedom. The uprising finally settled during the frigid cold of February,
sometime around 1552AD.
After America was invented, the holiday
came over here and for some reason switched to December. We still grow our
beards in remembrance of those dark times.