"It's October 3rd." Those were the words spoken by Cady Heron to Aaron Samuels on that fateful day, and so, a holiday lovingly known as Mean Girls Day was born. But Cady delivered her straightforward line when Mean Girls came out in 2004, and it took a while for the date to catch on as a holiday. Even though Oct. 3 is now celebrated for its significance in the pivotal high school comedy, it's important to remember the history of Mean Girls Day and how everyone started celebrating this momentous occasion outside of the film.
In the movie, Cady was sitting in Ms. Norbury's math class — 12th grade calculus — behind Aaron Samuels. Cady had just gotten queen bee Regina George's "blessing" to pursue him, after finding out that Regina and Aaron had dated in the past (though, just 28 days after October 3, Regina revokes that blessing). Once Cady knew she could flirt with reckless abandon, she began tracking every interaction she had with Aaron. This included Cady's narration explaining, "On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was." Viewers then watch the menial, seemingly insignificant interaction of asking someone what day it is play out — and the rest was history.
Because the celebration of the date-specific quote started on the Internet, it's hard to track down exactly where it started. According to Know Your Meme, it was a Hunger Games fan site that first used the term National Mean Girls Day on a blog post. But like most origin stories to mythologies, this one is simply speculation. The only thing that's really known for certain is that Mean Girls Day caught fire up in 2012, when The Atlantic and E! acknowledged the distinctive holiday.
From then on, Mean Girls Day has inspired annual GIFs and memes online, but celebrations could include something as simple as going to Taco Bell or wearing pink (even if it's not a Wednesday). In 2017, Mean Girls Day was extra special, because tickets to the Mean Girls musical went on sale that Tuesday, and Mean Girls creator Tina Fey was passing out cheese fries in New York City to celebrate. And yet other Mean Girls cast members used Oct. 3 to raising money for victims of the Las Vegas mass shooting that happened two days beforehand.
It's refreshing to celebrate Mean Girls Day, because it has a specific reason behind it. At a time when each day seems to be National something Day, be it National Pizza Day or National Cake Fondant Day, it is nice that a somewhat unofficial holiday, like Mean Girls Day, has a reason, silly as it may be. For Oct. 3 — such a random and seemingly insignificant day — to become something so much bigger just proves that Mean Girls will always be celebrated as a hilarious film with some of the most quotable lines.
The truth is that everyday could be Mean Girls Day, because the film covers everything chronologically and specifically from the first day of school to prom. However, no date is as specifically mentioned as Oct. 3. (Though Cady does narrate that, two weeks after October 3, Aaron spoke to her again by stating the obvious: "It's raining.") Perhaps someday there will be a new celebration for every October 17 during which it rains. Perhaps National Aaron Samuels Is Hot Day or National "It's Raining" Day?
Since nobody knows exactly which calendar day other crucial Mean Girls moments happened — like what day Regina George asked if butter is a carb or when Cady threw up on Aaron's shoes — October 3rd is the best day to celebrate this cinematic masterpiece. And may it remain so for years to come.
