National Day of Listening is a holiday that’s observed on the day following Thanksgiving. The purpose of this holiday is to encourage people to gather with their families and preserve a record of their shared family history, a record that children and grandchildren years from now will be able to enjoy, and one that will keep the family history preserved for all time.

It’s important for all of us to record our personal and family histories for posterity, and that’s why this holiday is so important to celebrate. So, on this day, let’s all get together, record our family histories, and save them for future generations.

The History of the National Day of Listening

This holiday was created by StoryCorps, an American non-profit organization with a mission to record, preserve, and share stories from all backgrounds and belief systems. They created this holiday in 2008 to encourage all Americans to record and share their individual family histories.

Observing National Day of Listening

There’s no special way to conduct interviews with your family members; all you have to do is grab some type of recording device (pen, pencil, tape recorder, or digital recorder) and then ask questions that you think future generations would want to know about from current family members.

It could be about their job in the military, what they did for a living, or where they lived. Once you have that information, all you have to do is safeguard it for future generations. It’s just that easy.