World Left-handed Day

The holiday was first celebrated on August 13, 1992.In the UK and other countries, Wednesday is World Left-handed Day. It was first celebrated on August 13, 1992, on the initiative of the British Left-handed Club, created two years earlier.

According to statistics, about 10% of the population of the UK (about 6 million people) are left-handed. In everyday life, they often have to face such a problem as the adaptation of many household items, such as writing supplies, computer mice, kitchen equipment, hand coffee grinders and mills, exclusively to the needs of right-handed people. Those who use the left hand as the leading one tend to attract the attention of designers, manufacturers and sellers of goods on this day to the need to take into account the convenience of left-handers when using various items.

On August 13, left-handed public organizations organize various events and competitions “from the opposite”, not allowing participants to use their right hand when eating, working, and various subtle manipulations. However, the main concern of the Left-handed Club of Great Britain is that in many schools of the country, left-handed children still tend to relearn to writing with their right hand, which causes psychological stress and reduces student achievement.

Meanwhile, statistics show that public prejudice towards people using their left hand more is declining. If in the 1930s there were only about 3% of left-handers in the United Kingdom, by the 50s this figure had risen to 5%, and now in the country about one in ten is left-handed.

Among the famous left-handers of Great Britain are Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and James Callaghan, the legendary Admiral Horatio Nelson, Queen Victoria, Queen Mother Elizabeth, Prince William. There are many famous lefties in other countries, especially in the United States. By the way, left-handed was the Russian writer Nikolai Leskov, who wrote in the XIX century the famous story about the Left-handed flea.