National Unicorn Day

What mythological creature has been more beloved over the centuries than the delightful unicorn?

As incredible symbols of purity and enchantment, unicorns are loved by both children and adults alike and are integral parts of many fairy tales and legends.

For all the roles they’ve played in literature, cinematography, and art as a whole, unicorns more than deserve their own day. And now is the time to learn more about National Unicorn Day.

How to Celebrate National Unicorn Day

The best way to celebrate this day would be to find a fun, fanciful activity to enjoy with family or friends. Get creative with art, music or other projects that can promote free-thinking and fantasy.

Or try out some of these other ideas to celebrate National Unicorn Day.

Watch a Film that Includes Unicorns

One activity that could be perfectly suited to this day would be sitting down to watch a good fantasy film, preferably one that includes unicorns, of course! It’s likely to have been a long time since having watched The Chronicles of Narnia. Try out one of these interesting films that include a unicorn or two:

• Legend (1986). This less-than-well-known film actually features a fairly noteworthy cast, including Tom Cruise, Tim Curry and Mia Sara, where darkness (Tim Curry) seeks to eradicate unicorns from existence.
• Stardust (2007). Starring Clare Danes, this fantasy movie shows how a fallen star (in the shape of a woman) is rescued with the help of a unicorn.
• Blade Runner (1982). In this sci-fi film, the unicorn plays a symbolic role in a dream as well as in the form of a paper origami shape.
• Fantasia 2000 (1999). This remake of the classic animated Disney film features Mickey Mouse and his incredible group of friends–including a brief scene with a unicorn who laughs at the other animals going to Noah’s ark.

Throw a Unicorn Themed Party

National Unicorn Day shouldn’t be kept a secret! So get the word out by inviting a few friends, family members, neighbors or co-workers to gather together while enjoying and celebrating everything pertaining to unicorns.

Invite guests to dress up as their favorite unicorn or fantasy character. Provide treats and snacks, like the rainbow themed cupcakes featured below.

Decorate using rainbow balloons and streamers, as well as tinsel and glitter of all kinds. It’s like that cups, napkins and paper plates with unicorn designs can easily be sourced at a party store.

Read Books and Learn Some Unicorn History

The above information featuring the history of unicorns only scratches the surface of what can be learned about these fascinating, mythical creatures.

Head on over to the library and check out some books that tell the many ways unicorns have played a part in literature over the centuries.

Learn About Unicorns in Scottish Culture

One fun aspect about National Unicorn Day that would be interesting to research (that most people don’t realize) is the fact that the unicorn is actually the national animal of Scotland.

This fantastical creature is deeply beloved and has been on the Scottish Royal Coat of Arms at least since the mid-1500s.

Bake Unicorn Cupcakes

How about inviting some friends over to bake colorful cupcakes that can then be topped with colorful icing and sprinkles?

Those who would also be willing to bring in a plate of those to work would make a load of friends in no time! Never made cupcakes before? No problem—just follow this simple recipe.

History of National Unicorn Day

Unicorns have been mentioned in literature as far back as antiquity—ancient Greek writers believed they lived in the faraway and exotic country of India, which was then largely unknown to Europeans at the time.

However, at the time the unicorn was thought to be a powerful, fierce animal that was not to be meddled with.

In the Middle Ages, the unicorn’s image was based greatly on Bible passages that were thought to speak of these animals, and unicorns slowly came to be seen as a symbol of strength, the purest kind of love, and the pets of virgin women.

In fact, there is even a sculpture of the Virgin Mary holding a unicorn on her lap and patting it in Warsaw’s National Museum located in the capital of Poland !

Thus, unicorns have been appearing in works of literature for thousands of years, although it is now thought by many scholars that this case of unicorns appearing in the bible may have been a translation error.

The most prominent more modern examples of unicorns that can be found in fantasy literature include Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, and The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis. Not only that, but the whole immensely popular My Little Pony franchise is also based on unicorns, with the series beginning in the 1980s and being revived a few decades later.

National Unicorn Day was founded in 2015 to celebrate these majestic creatures and help adults remember how much more fun life can be when they let a little magic in sometimes. And this is a great beginning for the celebration of National Unicorn Day!

Facts About National Unicorn Day

Ancient “Unicorns” on Indus Valley Seals

 Archaeologists have found hundreds of Bronze Age seals from the Indus Valley Civilization, dating from about 2600 to 1900 BCE, that depict a distinctive one-horned animal standing before a ritual object.

Scholars still debate whether this “unicorn” represents a real animal shown in profile, a mythical creature, or a clan/emblem symbol, but its consistent stylized shape suggests it held important cultural or religious meaning for one of the world’s earliest urban societies.  

Ctesias’s Colorful Unicorn of India  

One of the earliest detailed written descriptions of a unicorn comes from the Greek physician Ctesias around the 4th century BCE, who reported an Indian wild ass “the size of a horse” with a white body, a purple head, blue eyes and a horn striped in white, black and red.

Modern historians think he likely combined travelers’ tales of Indian rhinoceroses and other exotic animals into a single fantastical creature, which helped fix the idea of the unicorn as a real but distant beast in the classical imagination.  

Unicorn Tapestries as Medieval Allegory

The famous late‑medieval Unicorn Tapestries, now at The Met Cloisters in New York, show a unicorn hunted, killed and then resurrected in a flowering garden, and are widely interpreted as dense Christian allegories of Christ’s passion and purity.

Woven in the late 15th or early 16th century in the Low Countries, they also reveal how the unicorn became bound up with courtly love, elite hunting culture and luxury textile production, since such large, detailed wool and silk hangings would have been enormously expensive status symbols. 

Scotland’s Unicorn and the Symbolism of Chains

In Scottish heraldry the unicorn has appeared as a supporter of the royal coat of arms since at least the late 15th century, often shown with a crown around its neck and a chain running to its body.

Medieval heralds believed the unicorn was so strong and wild that only a virgin or a king could tame it, so the chains did not signify captivity as much as the monarch’s divine right and power to bring even the most untamable creature under lawful rule, a political message that carried through the Union of the Crowns.   

Narwhal Tusks Sold as “Unicorn Horn”

For centuries, long spiral tusks from Arctic narwhals were traded into Europe and presented as authentic “unicorn horns,” known as alicorns, which were carved into royal scepters, cups and reliquaries.

Because people believed shavings from these horns could detect or neutralize poison, they were sometimes ground into expensive medicines or used in elaborate drinkware at princely courts, a lucrative trade that linked northern hunting cultures with the medical and magical economies of Renaissance Europe.  

From Mythic Beast to Billion‑Dollar Startup  

In modern business slang the word “unicorn” was popularized by venture capitalist Aileen Lee in a 2013 article to describe privately held tech startups valued at over $1 billion, chosen because such success was thought to be as rare as the mythical creature.

The term quickly spread through Silicon Valley and global finance, spawning further variations like “decacorn” for $10‑billion companies and reflecting how a medieval symbol of wonder and rarity has been repurposed to talk about high‑growth, high‑risk innovation.  

Bonus: Vanilla Unicorn Cupcakes Recipe

Ingredients (makes 12)

• 110g butter softened
• 110g caster sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 110g self-raising flour
• 1-2 tbsp milk

For the buttercream icing

• 140g/5oz butter softened
• 280g/10oz icing sugar sifted
• 1-2 tbsp milk
• a few drops food coloring

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180C and line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
• Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until pale.
• Beat in the eggs a little at a time and stir in the vanilla extract.
• Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little milk until the mixture is of a dropping consistency.
• Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until they are half full.
• Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into one of the cakes comes out clean.
• Cool for 10 minutes and then until cooled completely on a wire rack.

For the icing

• Beat the butter in a bowl with half the icing sugar until smooth.
• Then, add the remaining icing sugar with a bit of the milk, and beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
• Lastly, add the food coloring and mix until well combined. Using a piping bag with a star nozzle, pipe the icing onto the cooled cupcakes.

And voilà! Delicious cupcakes that are as cute as a button and unique as a unicorn.

National Unicorn Day is the perfect day to remember how tales of magic and enchantment influences the imagination for children as well as adults.