Every Day Is Special: October 18 – International Necktie Day

October 18 – International Necktie Day

Posted October 18, 2019

There's this semi-humorous assumption that it's hard to buy personal Father's Day gifts, so everyone just goes out and buys a necktie.

Of course, that's a huge exaggeration, in part because:

(1) Many, many kids are able to buy or make gifts for their dad that are not neckties.

(2) Not all men wear neckties.

(3) Some women wear neckties. Some women and girls HAVE to wear neckties as part of their uniforms.

All of that said, ties do make pretty good gifts in many cases. They're small enough to slip into even a full suitcase for airplane travel (the same cannot be said for a golf club or tool box!), and they are varied in cost and material, color and pattern - so it's pretty easy to give a personal gift that's a necktie.

I know a guy who wears a tie every day to teach high school science courses - and he has a cool collection of science-y ties! I bet his kid is always on the lookout for a science necktie he doesn't yet own!

Why is today International Necktie Day?

People in Croatia are proud to claim neckties as an invention of their ancestors. Nobody is sure when it was invented, but by the Thirty Years' War, in 1618, Croatian soldiers were wearing red neckwear with their uniforms. They were called cravats. Soon French and British soldiers borrowed the idea - with modifications, of course - and Louis XIV of France started wearing a lace cravate (cravat in French) as a child.

When royalty adopts a new fashion, many
others will follow. Here is Louis XIV in 1667 -
WAY older than a little kid!

Now, of course, the practice of wearing a cravat or necktie has spread all over the world. Proud Croats started celebrating National Cravat Day on October 18 - calling attention to their contribution to fashion in spectacular fashion by tying an enormous red necktie around an ancient Roman amphitheater. Of course, this 2.650-foot-long tie ended up being in the Guinness Book of World Records! (I mean, it took two years to prepare and five days to install! So, yeah, it better have won the world's record!)