A little reason to celebrate
Paul Bunyan Day
Fun · History · June 28
Paul Bunyan, the giant lumberjack of American tall tales, and his blue ox Babe, with their stories of lakes, rivers and enormous breakfasts.
Paul Bunyan Day falls on Monday, June 28, 2027. That is 244 days away.
Paul Bunyan is the giant lumberjack of American folklore, a man so big that his footprints were said to fill with water and become lakes. He travels with Babe the Blue Ox, who is nearly as large and every bit as famous.
The stories are usually traced to the logging camps of the North Woods, though much of the written canon came from promotional pamphlets and children's books. Either way, the tales follow the rules of the tall tale. Each one takes an ordinary piece of camp life (chopping, hauling, cooking, cold weather) and stretches it until it bends the landscape. Paul clears whole forests in an afternoon. A camp griddle is so wide that cooks grease it by skating across it with slabs of bacon strapped to their feet.
That exaggeration is the point. A tall tale is told with a straight face, and the listener is in on it. The best tellers add their own details, so no two versions of a Paul Bunyan story quite match.
People mark the day by retelling the stories, reading them aloud to kids, or making a lumberjack breakfast of pancakes. Some towns in the upper Midwest and Northeast have large Paul Bunyan statues, often with Babe beside him, and visiting one is a common outing.
If you want to try telling one yourself, start with something true and small, like a cold morning, and keep making it bigger until the lake freezes solid with the fish still mid-jump.
Ways to celebrate
- Read a Paul Bunyan tall tale aloud to someone.
- Make a stack of pancakes for a lumberjack breakfast.
- Visit a Paul Bunyan statue if one is nearby.
- Invent your own tall tale about an everyday chore.
- Wear plaid flannel for the day.
Dates
| Year | Date |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Sunday, June 28 |
| 2027 | Monday, June 28 |
| 2028 | Wednesday, June 28 |
| 2029 | Thursday, June 28 |
| 2030 | Friday, June 28 |
Also on June 28
Categories: Fun daysHistory days