It's a holiday, somewhere: Quick, make an online post

Call me a party pooper, but I did nothing this year to mark Pi Day. I baked neither a sweet nor a savory pie. Perhaps worse, but without deliberate offense to STEM-loving peoples, I also failed to observe Albert Einstein's birthday that day -- no Instagrammed black-hole image or chummy post on Einstein's official Facebook page wishing him an HBD.

The next day, I sat out the Ides of March. I felt Scroogishly alone as the Internet simmered with activity, the month flashing by in a dazzle of festivities I barely knew existed -- National Puppy Day (March 23), National Tolkien Reading Day (March 25) and National Pencil Day (March 30), all of it tucked within National Women's Month, not to mention National Social Work Month.

Holidays have always been occasion for angst, ambivalence and sometimes, despite everything, genuine celebration. The greeting card industry has long mastered the art of amplifying holidays to tug at our impulses, whether generous or guilty. But the Internet and its social media accomplices have upped the ante, fabricating new holidays and ushering other time-honored rituals, solemn observations and family quarrels into the ether, where they are louder than ever.

Private rituals are now public. Communal events are worldwide. Everyone is invited, and please take a smartphone.

Some of this leads to a genuine expansion of the holiday spirit. But given the multitude of noteworthy occasions, it's hard to keep up with all the celebrating.

"Last Thanksgiving, I wasn't online all day and then I saw that everyone was talking about what they were thankful for, and I hadn't," says Melissa Ryan, a director of client services at Trilogy Interactive, a digital strategy firm based in Washington. "I had this sense of guilt, like I should be posting about my gratitude." After all, Ryan always posts on National Coffee Day ("I drink a lot of coffee"). And as a Star Wars fan, May the 4th Be With You Day on May 4 is a big deal. ("For normal people, it's Star Wars Day, that's funny. But I love Star Wars and have a lot of friends who love Star Wars.")

And there's so much more to celebrate. Sure, some of the latest holidays exist purely in the confines of the cloud. No reasonable person is going to grab the nearest vegan because of Hug a Vegetarian Day. But other "microholidays" or hashtag holidays have crossed over into the real world.

Susan McPherson, 51, a corporate responsibility consultant, was invited last year for the first time to a pie party in observation of Pi Day.

"There were tons of pies," she says. "Of course, I posted a picture; the pies were so beautiful."

Whether they originated as public relations opportunities or alleviators of boredom, these gratuitous celebrations can stir some of the same emotions the old stalwarts do. And just like traditional holidays, the new ones can manage to make you feel full and empty at the same time.

"Holidays online can be a wonderful way to feel like you're not alone in the world," McPherson says. "But it can also make you feel like the loneliest person in the world."

In some cases, offline holidays have migrated into the ether. Andrea Schneider, a director of product management at the Internal Revenue Service who lives in Bethesda, Md., recently started observing Rosh Hashana online. She, her husband and their two children curl up on the sofa and stream a service they like at a synagogue in Ohio.

"At services around here, I always felt a little lonely without my entire extended family," Schneider says. "Watching online with my kids, I feel like I get back some of the feeling of togetherness I was looking for." Friends of hers have set up a Google Hangout where they light Sabbath candles together.

Jen Nedeau, director of strategic communications at Bully Pulpit Interactive, says, "Social media brings us to a community table where we get to experience holidays in the same room." As she sees it, social media functions the way Hallmark used to, helping us figure out which holidays matter to us, and fostering communities that mimic the experience of small towns where everyone can digitally laugh together at what Grandma just said.

This all feels so It's a Wonderful Life, it's hard to sound a curmudgeonly note. I've tried to be more festive in April, National Poetry Month, posting several odes to verse. On National Siblings Day (April 10), while everyone else displayed sweet childhood photos of sisters hugging, I went gung-ho on Twitter: "When I was a child, my older brother would pin me down and let long tentacles of saliva dangle menacingly in my face. #HappySiblingsDay." A bunch of total strangers "favorited" it, and I felt good.

Pamela Paul is the editor of The New York Times Book Review.

Style on 04/26/2016

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