Frequently Asked Questions









What's the origin of Towel Day? Douglas Adams, best known as the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, died of a heart attack at age 49 on 11 May 2001. He was cremated in Santa Barbara (USA) and his ashes are buried in London (UK), where a Service of Celebration was held.

His fans wanted to organize some kind of wake in his honor. After its initial success it became an annual event.

Extract from the proposal posted in the "Binary Freedom" forum by D Clyde Williamson, on Monday May 14, 2001 06:00am PDT: Douglas Adams will be missed by his fans worldwide. So that all his fans everywhere can pay tribute to this genius, I propose that two weeks after his passing (May 25, 2001) be marked as "Towel Day". All Douglas Adams fans are encouraged to carry a towel with them for the day. Make sure that the towel is conspicous- use it as a talking point to encourage those who have never read the Hitchhiker's Guide to go pick up a copy. Wrap it around your head, use it as a weapon, soak it in nutrients- whatever you want!

Back to top







Because some time was needed to get the word out, Towel Day was organized two weeks after Douglas Adams' untimely death, on 25 May 2001.

Many other dates had been proposed. For those with an exceptionally long attention span: the 42nd day of the year ("Happy Adams Day"), 42 days after his death ("Second Day of Remembering"), the 11th of March (his birthday, around which from 2003 on a yearly "Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture" is held), the last Friday of every May, the Friday before the 42nd week-end day of the year (occasionally falls on 25 May, as it did the year he died), etc.

Of all proposed dates, the 25th of May turned out to be the one that gained a significant following. And over time it has acquired a certain status as a geek holiday. In 2001 Towel Day started to be celebrated. But in 2006 that day also became Geek Pride Day, because Star Wars was released on 25 May (1977). And in 2008, following Terry Pratchett's diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, Match It For Pratchett called on fans to wear lilacs on 25 May (the anniversary of the Glorious Revolution of the Twenty-Fifth of May, from Pratchett's Discworld books).

As the universe that Douglas Adams created was full of absurdity and randomness, it may be a fitting choice after all. And if you need an additional reason: if you add the hexadecimal numbers 25 and 5, and convert the result to decimal, you get 42!

Back to top









Why a towel?

From the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value -- you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-tohand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you -- daft as a bush, but very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough. More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: non-hitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with. Hence a phrase which has passed into hitch hiking slang, as in "Hey, you sass that hoopy Ford Prefect? There's a frood who really knows where his towel is." (Sass: know, be aware of, meet, have sex with; hoopy: really together guy; frood: really amazingly together guy.)

Douglas explains the origin of the idea:



Back to top









What kind of towel should I carry? Any towel will do. And one is enough, though some fanatics may try to carry 42 towels.

Back to top









So this is the nth edition of Towel Day? 2011 is the year of the 10th anniversary of Douglas Adams' death, but of the... 11th Towel Day! The confusion arises from the fact that the first Towel Day occured shortly after Douglas' death, long before the year of its first anniversary. Maybe this can help:

2001 - Towel Day #1 (year Douglas died)

2002 - Towel Day #2 (Douglas 1 year dead)

2003 - Towel Day #3 (Douglas 2 year dead)

2004 - Towel Day #4 (Douglas 3 year dead)

2005 - Towel Day #5 (Douglas 4 year dead)

2006 - Towel Day #6 (Douglas 5 year dead)

2007 - Towel Day #7 (Douglas 6 year dead)

2008 - Towel Day #8 (Douglas 7 year dead)

2009 - Towel Day #9 (Douglas 8 year dead)

2010 - Towel Day #10 (Douglas 9 year dead)

2011 - Towel Day #11 (Douglas 10 year dead)

2012 - Towel Day #12 (Douglas 11 year dead)

2013 - Towel Day #13 (Douglas 12 year dead)

Etc.

Back to top









What are your best tips for event organizers? (succesful organizers, we welcome your suggestions!)

The worst thing that can happen is that nobody shows up at your event. To avoid this:

1) Start planning very early

2) Start advertising very early: create a Facebook event or web page and share it. Invite people who may be interested. Maybe contact organisations whose members may be interested. SEND AN E-MAIL TO info at towelday dot org and include the URL of your Facebook event or web page in your message.

The second worst thing that can happen is that people show up but are just standing around awkwardly.

If you have great entertainers in your group, this probably won't happen. What probably helps is to tell people in advance about an activity that is planned. For example: at noon, a toast to Douglas Adams will be made. Or, at 2pm the movie will be screened. Etc.

If your event is outdoors, provide information on where people will meet if the weather is bad. (some people went home because they saw nobody and didn't know the others had fled to a bar nearby)

Back to top









Where can I find a recipe for the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster? Douglas Adams once said in an interview that there are a number of environmental and weapons treaties, as well as laws of physics, which prevent the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster from being mixed on Earth.

But if you want to try anyway, here are some recipes (try at your own risk)

Disclaimer : The above link is provided for educational purposes only. Towelday.org is NOT responsible for anything unpleasant that might happen if you try to make Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters. And it does not encourage such irresponsible behaviour. Ask your doctor or pharmacist. In case of eye contact, keep out of remaining eye. Not recommended for children under twelve years of age. Keep away from open flame or spark. Void where prohibited. Use only as directed. Parental discretion advised. No warranty expressed or implied. Do not drink before or while operating a vehicle or heavy equipment. May be too intense for most life forms. For recreational use only. Do not disturb. All models over 18 years of age. If swallowed, do not induce vomiting. As seen on TV.

Back to top









Can I send towelday.org my pictures? We'll link to pictures of an event if you send us the URL where they can be found! Please don't send the pics themselves. We don't host pics and recommend to upload them on Flickr and tag them with "towelday", for maximum exposure.

You can also post pictures on the Facebook page http://facebook.com/towelday/ for all the world to see.

Back to top









Is there a charity I can donate to in memory of Douglas Adams? Some people have contacted us for suggestions about charities they could donate to in memory of Douglas Adams. We suggest two charities that Douglas Adams actively supported:

And here's a chance to help charity... for free:

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Foundation has been created in memory of Douglas Adams, to promote literacy and communication skills. They do not at this time accept donations, but YOU CAN help them by recommending small literacy or communication skills charities or organisations that they could support. Their e-mail address is info at hitchhikerfoundation dot org dot uk

Back to top









Towel Day was a blast! But what am I to do the rest of the year? If you're a hardcore hitchhiker, you may need something stronger than Towel Day. And yes, there is such a thing. Listen carefully, we will say this only once. What you are looking for is called ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Appreciation Society. Beware, these folks are really weird. But then again, so are you.









Please tell me the exciting story of the Towel Day site! We get this question all the time! Really! (not)

On 14 May 2001 Clyde D Williamson wrote a post proposing to celebrate "Towel Day" on 25 May 2001. Two days later his friend Chris Campbell registered towelday.org and .com, and created a website. People all over the world celebrated Towel Day and sent them pictures of themselves with their towels.

Due to its success, Towel Day became an annual celebration, but the creators ended up moving on to other projects.

In February 2004, Tobbe "Kojv" Landin relaunched the site on his own server at towelday.kojv.net! He kept the tradition alive and ran a rather successful online forum. But in late 2008 he unexpectedly died at the age of 30 and his site disappeared.

One year before Kojv's untimely death, fans had bought back the original towelday.org domain from a domain squatter. They started out with a webpage with some minimal info, linking to Kojv's forum. After his death the site was expanded to be once again the home of Towel Day.

Back to top









I've spotted a typo

Please tell us! Also, don't hesitate to go full Grammar Nazi on us. We try to avoid errors, but we're not native English speakers. We always appreciate a little friendly proofreading.

Back to top









Send e-mail to: info at towelday dot org



We welcome feedback, but apologize for being unable to reply to all messages individually.

Back to top



















































































































