What Is Galentine’s Day? How Parks and Rec Created a Holiday Celebrating Female Friendships
“It’s only the best day of the year,” the day of “uteruses before duderuses” and “ovaries before brovaries.”
And the off-screen best friends from NBC’s popular sitcom, Parks and Recreation, are almost never caught missing it. Aubrey Plaza, who played notoriously apathetic intern April Ludgate on the show, shared a sweet selfie with former co-stars, Amy Poehler (Leslie Knope) and Rashida Jones (Ann Perkins), celebrating their Galentine’s Day together last year.
“happy galentines dayyyyyy,” she wrote in the post. The trio celebrated in 2018 as well, keeping up the tradition with other members of the cast.
A post shared by aubrey plaza (@plazadeaubrey) on Feb 13, 2019 at 9:22am PST
So what exactly is Galentine’s Day?
The iconic celebration is an unofficial holiday that takes place on Feb. 13, the day before Valentine’s Day. Its entire premise is that women forget about their husbands, boyfriends or significant others for the day — and solely focus on celebrating the women in their lives. Contrary to the popular criticism that Galentine’s Day patronizes single women, the celebration is meant to be a day of empowerment, and a reminder for women to support and uplift one another.
It’s about “ladies celebrating ladies,” as Poehler’s character, Leslie Knope, would put it.
Where does Galentine’s Day come from?
We have the legendary Leslie Knope to thank, circa 2010.
During season 2, episode 16, of Parks and Rec, the world was first introduced to the glory that is Galentine’s Day by Poehler’s well-loved character. In the episode, Knope explains what Galentine’s Day is and arranges for her female friends to “kick it breakfast style,” giving out hand-knit presents and essays she wrote about what makes each woman special. Galentine’s Day appeared again in a following season.
How can you celebrate Galentine’s Day?
Since the episode first aired, Leslie Knope’s tradition has been popularly adopted, with women all over the world celebrating Galentine’s Day. It can be as simple as grabbing a drink or dinner after work, or a movie night (maybe even binge-watching Parks and Rec) with some favorite snacks at home. Others have thrown full-blown parties, and many restaurants and venues have taken to hosting events.
The possibilities for celebrating are endless and unique to each group of friends. At the end of the day it’s about spending some quality time with incredible women in your life, being grateful for their friendship and empowering one another.
Like Leslie Knope said, “It’s wonderful and it should be a national holiday.”
