Facts About Summer Vacation
Summer is almost here, and with summer comes vacation. You may receive a few days off, or you may have to take time off from work. You might even be planning a trip abroad. Regardless of what you plan to do with your Summer vacation, we hope you are able to get the rest you need, have fun doing the things that you enjoy, and come back refreshed for the next year of work.Summer vacations are a time for relaxing, having fun and enjoying family. Here are some fun facts about summer holidays.
You’ve taken all your notes and you’re ready to go. However, there’s one last thing you should do before you go. Here are the facts about summer vacation.
It’s the time of year for planning vacations and summer getaways. These fact sheets are great for any parent who is looking to plan their families vacation.
20 Fun Facts about Summer:
- The first modern Olympic Games were held in the summer in 1896 in Athens, Greece.
- The first day of summer is between June 20th and June 22nd every year. The first day of summer is called the summer solstice, and the day varies due to the Earth’s rotation not exactly reflecting our calendar year.
- The last day of summer is September 20th.
- Watermelon is one of summer’s best summer treats. Did you know that watermelons are not a fruit, but a vegetable instead? They belong to the cucumber family of vegetables.
Facts About Summer Vacation
- The Eiffel Tower actually grows in the heat of the summer. Due to the iron expanding, the tower grows about 6 inches every summer.
- If you love ice cream, the summer season should be your favorite. July is national ice cream month.
- Another interesting fact about summer is that television shows used to only be reruns during the summer months. The idea being that everyone was outside enjoying the weather.
- A June fun fact is that the month of June is named after the Roman goddess Juno.
- The first women’s bathing suit was created in the 1800’s. It came with a pair of bloomers.
- The “dog days of summer” refer to the dates from July 3rd to August 11th. They are named so after the Sirius the Dog Star. This star is located in the constellation of Canis Major.
- Frisbee’s, invented in the 1870’s as a pie plate, but in the 1940’s, college students began throwing them around. They have since stopped being used for pie plates and are now a summertime staple.
- For a July fun fact, Roman general Marc Antony named the month of July after Julius Caesar.
- July is national blueberry month.
- The longest day of the year is on the summer solstice.
- Mosquito’s are most prevalent during summer months. Mosquito’s have been on earth for more than 30 million years.
- Most theme and water parks are on a summer seasonal schedule. Most amusement parks have a full time season from Memorial Day to Labor Day.
- August was named after Julius Caesar’s nephew. He had received the title of “Augustus” which means “reverend”.
- The first National Spelling Bee was held on June 17th, 1825.
- More thunderstorms occur during summer than any other time of year. They are also take place more commonly in the south east of England.
- Ice pops were invented in 1905 by an 11 year old boy.
Hopefully these fun facts have you excited for the summer. Now you’ll be able to plan an epic getaway and create long lasting memories with friends and family.
What’s not to love about summer? The sun is out, the flowers are in bloom, and we can finally leave our winter jackets at home. But if you need more of a push to get into the summer spirit, read on. These pieces of trivia will have you ready to face the heat with the enthusiasm of an eight year old at a water park. From interesting tidbits about warm-weather treats to the most fabulous festivals that take place during these months, these summer facts are also all reasons why it’s the best season of the year.
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1It is possible to fry eggs on a sidewalk.
Have you ever been told that if it gets hot enough in the summer, you could fry an egg on a sidewalk? Well, it’s true! In 2015, when it hit a scorching 44° Celsius or around 111° Fahrenheit in Perth, Australia, a man successfully fried some eggs by using the heat that had collected on the sidewalk, according to Delish. Granted, he did use a pan, which is understandable considering that he ended up eating what he’d prepared!
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2There’s a Game of Thrones-like “pirate” tower on a California beach.
“If you have even an ounce of swashbuckling spirit, you can’t explore Laguna’s ever-eroding cliff sides and cavern-filled canyon trails without daydreaming of pirates,” raves the Visit Laguna Beach website. The scenery around Victoria Beach specifically has a dramatic vibe due to the picturesque tower which, as BuzzFeed News notes, makes the area feel like something out of the HBO fantasy drama. Granted, the history behind the structure isn’t as glamorous. Built in 1926 for a senator named William E. Brown, it’s actually a staircase that was used to get down to the beach at the base of the stunning (if dangerously steep) cliffs.
3Monarch butterflies spend the summer in North America before migrating south.
Anyone who enjoys walking in flower-filled fields or spending time gardening in their backyard will likely know that summer is the best time to spot butterflies. Monarch butterflies, with their orange and black wings, spend the summer months in North America before migrating south (or sometimes west) for the winter. You can even track their journey to see if they’re passing through your neighborhood!
4There’s a picnic-related holiday in August.
During the spring, there are cherry blossom-viewing picnics in Japan. And in Argentina, it’s tradition to picnic for Christmas. However, if you prefer to dine outside in the summer, then you’ll be thrilled to find out that there’s a picnic-related holiday in August, thanks to Australia. A tradition that’s been around the Northern Territory “since at least the late 1800s,” according to National Today, Picnic Day takes place on the first Monday of the month. (Granted, August isn’t summer in Australia, but you can celebrate the holiday wherever you aare, if you like.)
5A record-breaking freediver can hold his breath for almost 25 minutes.
Swimming is a classic summer pastime that can be both invigorating and relaxing. However, there are some who take their underwater efforts to the extreme. Just take Budimir Šobat, for example. In March 2021, the Croatian freediver, who was 56 years old at the time, set a Guinness World Record after holding his breath for an incredible 24 minutes and 37.36 seconds. “While I am doing my maximum static apnea [a breath-holding technique], I have my eyes closed and all I am focused on is to try to hear my heartbeat,” the diver said. “Once I heard it, I became calm and ready to fight the time.”
6The largest scoop of ice cream ever weighed over 3,000 pounds.
Did you know that July is National Ice Cream Month? It’s the perfect time to indulge in the sweet treat, though you’d need a huge appetite to master the biggest scoop ever, which weighed a belly-busting 3,010 pounds. Created by Kemps Dairy in Cedarburg, Wisconsin as part of their 100th anniversary, the scoop stood 5’6″ high, stretched 6’2″ wide, and was made of around 733 containers of ice cream. What flavor, you ask? Strawberry, which means that it was a pretty pink and looked as good as it surely tasted!
7Around 100,000 thunderstorms happen in the U.S. each year, and most occur during the summer.
Summer brings to mind sunny days and sizzling temperatures. However, thunderstorms occur very frequently during the summer, especially in the afternoons and evenings. How Stuff Works explains that this is due to the fact that thunderstorms need both moisture and “rapidly rising warm air” in order to develop. Because of that, “it makes sense that they would occur more often” during the warmer summer months, “particularly in humid areas such as the southeastern United States.”
8Frisbee has gone from being played with an empty pie tin to being a full-on sport.
Kids and fun-loving adults have been playing with Frisbees for years. But though the Wham-O toy company started producing Frisbees back in 1957, History.com notes that the “story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871.” University students would play with the empty pie tins, which prompted Walter Frederick Morrison and Warren Franscioni to create the “Flying Saucer” in 1948. After many later incarnations, Frisbee is now an organized sport that can get rather competitive.
9You can watch bears bulk up to become the Fat Bear Week Champion.
The fact that bears are able to hibernate through the winter is a wonder of nature. But what helps them to survive those cold, food-free months is that they pack on the pounds during the summer. Fortunately for us, Explore.com runs live-streams from Alaska’s Katmai National Park, which allow viewers from all over the world to watch brown bears strolling around the river, feeding on salmon, wrestling with each other, and even frolicking in the water with their cubs. Keep an eye out for the bear who puts on the most weight, because they might be deemed the (staggeringly chubby) champion of Fat Bear Week.
10Sunshine improves your brain function.
It’s no secret that sunshine offers multiple health benefits, and many of them are mental. According to research from the University of Liege in Belgium (via The Independent), “human brains work better in summer.” After having volunteers work on attention and memory tests at different times throughout the year, researchers discovered that “brain activity peaked in the summer on the attention task…” So if you have a thought-heavy task in mind, you might want to schedule it for July or August.
11Americans eat enough hot dogs on July 4 to stretch from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles five times.
That’s more than 150 million (!) hot dogs, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. And between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Americans consume a whopping 7 billion hot dogs, or 818 every second.
12The term the “dog days of summer” comes from astronomy.
This phrase wasn’t inspired by lethargic, overheated pups. The “dog” in question is Sirius the Dog Star, which rises in the sky during late July as a part of the Greater Dog constellation, according to National Geographic. To the Greeks and Romans, the “dog days” indicated the hottest time of the year, a period that was said to bring fever and other types of catastrophe.
13The world’s largest cruise ship is the length of four football fields.
The world’s largest ship, Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, is composed of 18 decks and is around 1,200 feet long. A football playing field is 100 yards, which is 300 feet, making the ship four times the size of the turf where your favorite team plays!
14Humans are scientifically proven to be happier in the summer.
If you notice yourself feeling more chipper in the warmer months, you’re definitely not alone. For a 2011 study published in the journal Science, researchers looked at the tweets of some 2.4 million people around the world for two years. They found that when the change in daylight was positive (i.e. in the approach to the summer solstice), people posted significantly happier tweets than they did when the change in daylight was negative (i.e. in the approach to the winter solstice).