National Seashell Day
Listen to the ocean's memory with these treasures from the shore! Whether on display or as a craft, seashells are always charming.
Celebrated on the first day of summer, National Seashell Day is an ideal way to pay heed to the season of the year when seashells reign supreme!
History of National Seashell Day
Toss on a swimsuit or some clam-diggers and head on out to the water – hopefully in the sunshine – to enjoy this delightful day. National Seashell Day was established in 2016 by the beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel in southwest Florida to commemorate the amazing presence of seashells in the area. The day has been celebrated annually ever since.
Now it’s time to take a break from the office or school, grab a friend or family member and have a load of fun by celebrating National Seashell Day!
How to Celebrate National Seashell Day
Get creative with ways to enjoy the day, starting with some of these ideas:
Visit the Beach
The first order of business on (or as near as possible) the first day of summer is to get those toes digging right into the sand! Head on over to a body of water, whether it’s the coast of the ocean, the sea, an inlet or even a lake. And, of course, while there, it’s a great idea to spend time renewing that love for seashells.
Of course, since National Seashell Day was originally established by the folks in southwest Florida, perhaps it would be a fun idea to celebrate by heading on down to the beaches of Ft. Meyers or Sanibel and spending some time there!
Identify Some Seashells
While just collecting any and every beautiful seashell can be a fun way to enjoy National Seashell Day, it might also be a cool educational lesson for kids and adults alike to learn a bit more about them. Borrow a book about shells from the library or pick one up from a local bookstore and see what kinds of shells can be found that can be identified by the pictures in the reference book.
Learn a Bit About Seashells
When raising awareness for celebrating National Seashell Day, it might be fun to learn just a few fun facts about the day in order to share them with other folks! Here are some interesting tidbits of information and trivia about seashells to remember and share:
-
The two most common types of seashells that can be found washed up on beaches are gastropods and bivalves. Of these two, the more common are bivalves.
-
The patterns found on the seashells are not random – the colors and patterns are important identification or register markers. The patterns have engineering purposes to help the animals figure out their mantle so they grow their shell in the proper place.
-
One of the oldest known collections of shells can be traced back to 79 AD in Pompeii in Southern Italy, with shells from distant places, as far away as the Red Sea.
-
There are more than 200,000 different types of mollusks in the world and they each create their own unique types of shells!
