July 22nd is National Hammock Day! Make some time to sit back and relax on a hammock – if you’re not already. Hammock Day is appropriately celebrated right in the middle of the so-called “Dog Days of summer” (July 3rd though August 11th), and for those who don’t know, lying on a hammock is the perfect way to unwind during these beautiful warm summer months that will soon be missed.
Getting out of your hammock to get a snack, or your favorite summer beverage is okay. But, it is not a day for work. Cutting the lawn is forbidden on this day. And while the origin of the hammock is often debated, but apparently, Christopher Columbus’ journals provided the first documentation of the fabric and rope contraptions in the modern world. Beyond that…
- Derived from a term meaning fish net. Spanish explorers were the first to see them and it was Columbus who brought back several of them to Spain from what it is now the Bahamas.
- As for who really started it, however, we have to thank the Mayans. It is generally accepted that the origins of the hammock began approximately 1000 years ago in Central America by the Mayan Indians.
- This advanced culture which produced the most accurate calendar, the Mayan calendar, built the architecturally exquisite pyramids and stone palaces, created their own writing system, and were extraordinary astronomers and mathematicians, also designed a web-like hammock which is still in use today and considered to be the most ingenious and comfortable of all - hammocks.
And hey – even if you don’t have a hammock of your own, make some time to relax in the sun, because that’s what National Hammock Day is all about!