Sydney Cohen, Senior
The oddity of extraterrestrials is nothing short of being fantastical. The idea of intelligent beings other than humans is somewhat alarming to people because of the folklore and media created. The example of “E.T. The Extraterrestrial” is the first to come to mind for many. Although it is a cute, entertaining film, it ends with government intervention and E.T. having to return home on his spaceship, showing viewers that it is impossible to coexist long term. Additionally, there are crowd-declared terrifying films such as “Dark Skies,” in which aliens mentally torture, physically harm, and wreak havoc families. Contrary to the film industry-fueled fear, there is an entire subculture dedicated to appreciating said horrifying creatures.
Celebrated every second Tuesday of February, the essence of the holiday is “to celebrate and honor past, present, and future extraterrestrial visitors.” The holiday was made official in the state of New Mexico by representative Daniel Foley, of Roswell, New Mexico, in 2003. Even though this not a national holiday, people in New Mexico as well as other locations around the world take part in celebrating. The key question of an outsider of the celebration is: why is it solely recognized in New Mexico? Given the already seemingly odd history of the day, one might expect slightly outlandish reasoning. According to Checkiday.com, the memorial states that “extraterrestrials have contributed to the worldwide recognition of New Mexico through their many and ongoing visitations, sightings, unexplained mysteries, attributed technological advances, experimentations, expeditions, explorations, intrigues, provision of storylines for Hollywood epics and other accomplishments of alien beings throughout the universe.” So, where is all the proof of the array of explanations? Well, the proof starts in 1947 on a farm 75 miles from Roswell.
Rancher Mac Brazel came across debris in his sheep pasture that included taped metallic sticks, glossy and heavy paper, plastic, and foil. The sheriff was contacted, and he instructed the Roswell Army Air Force Base to remove the debris. Not too long following the sheep pasture debacle, on July 8, 1947, a headlining article was published by the Roswell Daily Record with the title of “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in Roswell Region.” The Roswell Army Air Force quickly tried to stifle news by making a statement saying the apparent saucer was a weather balloon, even though there is no record of any weather balloon being destroyed.
The next event occurring in New Mexico is anything but ordinary to the public eye. A phenomenon named “dummy drops” and manned by the army is by far one of the most conspired of events relating to the speculation of extraterrestrials. These were claimed to be experiments with the goal of attaining information on how far people could fall and survive using test dummies; however, for the spectators living in New Mexico, it seemed to be like extraterrestrials were falling from the sky and being taken to a government facility for testing. All of these events combined created cohesive proof for the subculture of people who love extraterrestrials.
Despite the questionable history of the holiday, there is still a multitude of people observing Extraterrestrial Culture Day. There are also many ways to celebrate. The obvious ones would be to further educate oneself on extraterrestrials in ways such as watching documentaries, reading books, and learning some history of Roswell and New Mexico. A fun idea for those observing the holiday could even be to travel to Roswell, New Mexico and take a tour. Another opportunity to explore the day is in Roswell, New Mexico by visiting the International UFO Museum and Research center.
The dedicated crew of extraterrestrial-lovers will honor five extraterrestrials. Their names are Valient Thor, “Tall White ETs”, Unarians, Biaviians, and Annuki. These five names depict different species of extraterrestrials that have had different impacts on people and events of the past, according to believers, such as creating humans, advising the US government, and many more.
No matter the route of observing this holiday, the unified culture and aspects of it bring many people together all over the world.
Comments