Pokémon is a Japanese media franchise that was founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures and is beloved around the world. The word is an abbreviation for “pocket monsters” in Japan, and the whole series is centered around these “monsters.”

Monsters are captured, trained, and cared for by Pokémon trainers who ultimately battle with them. This franchise has been around since the mid-1990s, and there are currently over 1,005+ species of Pokémon.

That’s probably why someone has decided to go ahead and give this franchise its own holiday. A holiday that’s observed annually on the 27th of February and is aptly known as National Pokémon Day.

The History of National Pokémon Day

Pokémon was created in 1996 by Satoshi Tajiri. He was fascinated by insects as a child and originally wanted to become an entomologist so he could collect them but was instead diverted to his other passion: video games.

He became a big fan of the game Space Invaders and spent his teenage years learning all that he could about video games. After collaborating with Nintendo on a puzzle game called Yoshi, he turned his attention to a new idea that he had for a game.

This idea was at first called Capsule Monsters, but that name infringed on the copyright of another intellectual property, so he renamed it to CapuMon. Eventually, these would become “Pocket Monsters.”

The animated Pokémon series was invented in Japan in 1997. It followed the story of Satoshi, a boy who sets out to become the greatest trainer of Pokémon in the world. He set out to become a master, accompanied by his faithful Pokémon, Pikachu.

Unfortunately, we’re currently unsure who invented National Pokémon Day, why they invented it, or why they placed it on this date. We’ll continue to search for the answers to these questions, but at this moment, we’re afraid that we don’t have any additional information on the subject to offer.

Fun Facts About Pokémon

Pokémon is such a weird and wonderful franchise that we simply can’t resist finding out all that we could about it and then listing the facts that we found below. We think the following Pokémon facts will delight children aged 1-99 years old, so let’s not waste any more time. Let’s check them out right now.

• At one point in time, Saudi Arabia banned this franchise because it allegedly promoted polytheism.
• Pikachu translates to “Sparkling Mouse Noise.”
• Many Pokémon names are puns or a play on words.
• To date, over 30 billion Pokémon cards have been sold.
• The only franchise that has sold more video games than Pokémon is Mario.
• Pokémon were designed to mimic Campbell’s soup cans.
• Almost 90 billion Pokémon have been captured on Pokémon Go.

Observing National Pokémon Day

Observing this holiday is easy, especially if a person just so happens to be a Pokémon fan. There are plenty of ways to enjoy this franchise: from playing the Pokémon games to enjoying the animated series.

And, of course, there are a variety of board and card games with the Pokémon theme. People can also use the hashtag #NationalPokemonDay on social media to spread the word about this holiday far and wide.