There are some odd events associated with November 11, many of them related to the numbers in the date “11/11.” On 11/11/11 — as in 1911 — an odd natural event occurred too: the Great Blue Norther. A number of cities across the central US were experiencing unseasonably high temperatures that day. In Kansas City, it reached 76°F. Springfield, Missouri beat even that, setting a record of 80°F at about a quarter to four. And in Oklahoma City, the thermometers topped out at 83°F. All of those are high-temperature records that still stand. But then it started to cool off. Fast. They were keeping track of the details in Springfield, and noticed that fifteen minutes after the high of 80°F, the temperature had dropped to 40°F, and by the end of the day it was 13°F outside.
The temperature dropped up to 67°F in a single day, and after the record highs, record lows (that also still stand) were set, all in one day. It was a massive cold front, of course — a “blue norther” — and led to the disturbances that always follow severe weather fronts, especially across the central plains of North America. A series of tornadoes across five states, intense blizzards, and in Oklahoma, dust storms. The front was huge; from Mississippi to Michigan. In the northeast US the saying goes “if you don’t like New England weather, wait a minute,” but really the midwest wins; there’s never been anything like the Great Blue Norther of 1911.
Everybody in the area knew about the weather change right away, but that wasn’t the case with the first college fraternity, which was founded on November 11, 1750 at the College of William and Mary in Virginia. Hardly anybody knew about it because it was a secret society. It wasn’t secret because they were doing anything untoward — Thomas Jefferson was a member, but later wrote “…it had no useful object, nor do I know whether it now exists.” Hardly anybody knew what it was called — it went by the initials “F.H.C.”, so it was called the Flat Hat Club. The initials stood for something else, but they never wrote it down, so nobody now knows what. It was probably Latin, and the two leading guesses are Fraternitas, Humanitas, et Cognitio and Fraternitas Humanitas Cognitioque. As far as anybody can tell, the F.H.C. society — which only had six members — had only one activity, which was getting together at the nearby Raleigh Tavern to drink beer.
In spite of not having any apparent purpose other than being a secret society (and drinking), the Flat Hat Club had a secret handshake, a special silver medal that showed you were a member, and they issued membership certificates. It lasted until 1781, and (sort of) led to the formation of the first modern-style fraternity, the Phi Beta Kappa Society. The story goes that in about 1773, some other students at William and Mary wanted to join the F.H.C., but couldn’t because membership was limited to six (because that’s the right number to sit around a table at the local pub). So they created another one, the P.D.A. Society, which evidently stood for Please Don’t Ask. That group was limited in size as well, and so when John Heath attended the college in 1776 and couldn’t join the P.D.A., he started Yet Another Club, which he called Phi Beta Kappa — which is the only one of the three that’s still around. The F.H.C. was revived, though, in 1972. In keeping with modern times and many decades of advances in table technology, they now allow 12 members.
Bar and tavern activity on November 11 features in several countries in northern Europe because today is the opening of Carnival. In Cologne, Germany, for one, it’s a weeklong festival kicked off at precisely (remember, it’s Germany) at 11:11 on 11/11. There are parades, shows, and other events led by the Jungfrau, the Prinz, and the Bauer — that is, the maiden, the prince, and the peasant. They have traditional costumes and ceremonial duties, and must be addressed appropriately as Her Loveliness, His Madness, and His Heftyness. People pay a great deal of money to get the titles, too.
During Carnival there are plenty of treats, but only in Asia is November 11 celebrated specifically because the digit “1” is just a single line. In Japan, where attention to detail is prized, they noticed that the number “1” looks very much like the treat called a Pocky — it’s a sort of cookie in the shape of a stick, dipped in a coating like chocolate. There’s a similar product called Pretz there too, although Pocky is much more available in the US. Since the treats look like a 1, the date 11/11 is celebrated in Japan as Pocky and Pretz Day.
In Korea, there’s a very similar snack called a Pepero. And sure enough, November 11 is Pepero Day there. In both countries it’s tradition to exchange gifts — stick-shaped cookies dipped in chocolate. In China, 11/11 is the biggest shopping day of the year, which makes it the biggest shopping day in the world. It’s enormously bigger in volume than Black Friday in the US, primarily because the whole population of North America is tiny compared to China’s. It’s a big shopping day because it’s a holiday in China, too: Singles Day. If you’re single, you “stand alone”. In Chinese slang, you’re called a “bare stick”, and a “1” looks like a stick, so if you have four ones in a row, well, you call it Singles Day.
Holidays based on numbers that look like cookies or sticks, secret societies, and freakish weather. It all sounds like plot elements from a Kurt Vonnegut novel, doesn’t it? And maybe it is. After all, Vonnegut was born on 11/11.
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