What is Monkey Day? Well, it isn’t the Birthday of the Monkey God, and it isn’t the Monkey King Festival, although Monkey Day will always be about The Handsome Monkey King to me. Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, features in Journey to the West. He calls himself the Great Sage, Equal to Heaven, and he grows with the story. I like him best in the beginning, when he’s a trickster and a troublemaker, but that’s because I’m shallow.

No, according to Wikipedia (which, as we all know, is never wrong):

Monkey Day is an unofficial international holiday celebrated on December 14.^[1] The holiday was created and popularized by artists Casey Sorrow and Eric Millikin when they were art students at Michigan State University.^[2] Monkey Day celebrates monkeys and “all things simian“, including other non-human primates such as apes, tarsiers, and lemurs.^[3] It is celebrated worldwide and often also known as World Monkey Day and International Monkey Day.

So today, watch King Kong (the Peter Jackson version, which was released on Monkey Day), or the Monkey Magic tv show, or The Forbidden Kingdom.

Celebrate primates! You’re one, you know.

A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Write about an animal king. Or read up on the Monkey King and write about him.

MA