Observed on August 13th every year, International Left-Handers Day is an unofficial holiday celebrated all over the world. This holiday is a chance for people to feel good about being left-handed or to acknowledge that special left-handed person in their life.

Trust us when we say that left-handed people need a little bit of appreciation because just about everything in society is designed from a right-handed perspective. Another purpose of this holiday is to bring attention to the special needs of left-handed children both in and out of the classroom.

The History of International Left-Handers Day

International Left-Handers Day was originally started in the UK in 1992 as a day to bring attention to the needs of left-handed school children and to give left-handed people a day to take pride in themselves.

After people in the U.S. heard about this holiday, they too began to celebrate it. It’s now a holiday that’s observed all over the world, although there isn’t currently any place where it’s a legal holiday. It’s merely an unofficial holiday in most places.

Left-Handed People Facts

Anyone on the hunt for amazing facts about left-handed people will want to read this section. That’s because we’ve put together a list of factoids that we think just about anyone will find interesting. Let’s check out some of them, shall we?

Left-Handed People Account for 12% of the World’s Population

Although many left-handed people feel alone in the world, the fact is that 12% of the world’s population is left-handed. That means 88% are right-handed, which is the reason why almost everything is made from a right-handed person’s perspective. Only about 1% of the people in the world are ambidextrous.

Southpaws Are Usually Better at Multi-Tasking

According to several different studies, left-handed people are able to perform multiple tasks at the same time better than right-handed people. Scientists believe this is because right-handed people tend to look at the individual parts of a problem, while left-handed people look at the whole problem at one time.

Left-Handed People Tend to Be More Creative

According to two different studies, one from 1977 and one from 2007, painters and musicians were more likely to be left-handed. These studies also showed that architects were more likely to be left-handed than right-handed.

Some People Have a Phobia of Left-Handed People

Sinistrophobia is a fear of left-handed people and the left side of people or objects. The word is made up of two Greek words: “sinistro” (meaning left) and “phobia” (meaning fear).

Observing International Left-Handers Day

Observing International Left-Handers Day is easy. If you’re left-handed, then give yourself a pat on the back or perhaps take a moment to purchase yourself something that was made specifically for left-handed people.

If you’re not left-handed, however, that doesn’t mean that you can’t still observe this holiday. You can always take a left-handed friend out for coffee or use the hashtag #LeftHandersDay on social media to spread love to all the left-handed people on the Internet.