Saturday is International Pillow Fight Day, the one day a year when whacking everyone else holding a pillow is perfectly acceptable.
According topillowfightday. com, pillow fights are breaking out around the world on Saturday in major cities, from New York, NY, and Atlanta, GA, to Tel Aviv, Israel, and Düsseldorf, Germany.
The concept of International Pillow Fight Day is a take on flash mobs, where large groups of people get together in public areas and do crazy and wacky things, such as the rotten tomato throwing in Spain. Pillow Fight Day is essentially the same as that, only with pillows instead of rotten tomatoes. The rules for the pillow fight are simple; try to use soft pillows, swing lightly, don’t swing at people without pillows, don’t remove any glasses or other fragile items from another person, and the event would be more fun with feathers.
If students want to start pillow fighting on the promised day, it would be advisable to do so somewhere there is plenty of room and plenty of people, most likely either the Front Lawn or the Pedestrian Mall. Just make sure the fighting is clean, fair, and, most importantly, fun.
International Pillow Fight Day in America is mostly noted for how masses of people go to New York City. For the past two years, the pillow fighting has mainly taken place on Wall Street, where, instead of lugging around sacks of money for the stock market, people are lugging around sacks of feathers. However, if you’re looking for a fully organized fight closer to home, the event in Atlanta. will take place in Freedom Park at 3 p.m. on Saturday. Or if you’re looking for something even closer, say, two hours away, the fight in Jacksonville, Fla. will take place in Riverside Park by 5 Points at 3 p.m. For more information on the Atlanta event, go to www.meetup.com/ATLmodelmeetup, and for information on the Jacksonville event, search for the Facebook group.
A few interesting factoids about the humble pillow:
1. According to the Guiness World Records, the largest pillow ever created was just over 2,421 square feet, with a 45 ft. zipper for the pillowcase.
2. The world’s largest pillow fight took place in Atlanta. on Oct. 6, 2006, with over 10,000 people participating.
3. Pillows are very important for posture and spinal care. John Schubbe of spine-helth.com suggests that the pillow a person chooses should be based on their sleep position.
“Body pillows…can serve several functions for people who prefer to sleep on their side. In particular, women who are pregnant may find that a body pillow that provides added support for the abdominal area helps them rest comfortably. People with neck pain may favor neck pillows, as they fill the hollow space created by the neck and help keep the neck in alignment with the spine. A lower back support pillow helps provide support for the inward curve in the lumbar (lower) spine,” says Schubbe.
Whichever pillow you choose, students, if you decide to start a pillow fight on Saturday, make sure you have fun and take plenty of pictures for laughs later.