September 7 is International RedHead Day

September 7 is International RedHead Day

September 7 is the International Redhead Day (RedHead Day). In 2005 the first annual “Redhead Day” festival was held in the Netherlands.

It was organized by the Breda city government and has attracted people from nearly 100 countries ever since. The festivities include picnics, art exhibitions, live music and fashion shows featuring redheaded models.

2011 also saw the start of the Irish Redhead Convention, which is held at the end of August in Cork. This summit also attracts people from all over the world and is characterized by choosing the “ginger” kings and queens, as well as having competitions for the best red eyebrows and the most freckles per inch and a particular “carrot war”.

Figures

Only 1 percent of the world’s population has red hair, and most of them are the result of a small mutation that appeared about 50,000 years ago, giving rise to the MC1R gene, responsible for this color.

Ireland and Scotland have the highest percentage of redheads: 11% and 13% respectively. In third place is England, with 6.5% of redheads.

The fourth position belongs to Europe with an average of 4.5%. The United States is next with 2%, followed by Canada and Australia with 1.5%.

Some curiosities

Among the curiosities of the colorados, along with certain aesthetic patterns such as very white complexion, freckles and generally brown, hazel or green eyes, there are other special characteristics.

They are more sensitive to temperature changes and also to pain, so they need up to 20 percent more doses of anesthesia.

In addition, they are higher vitamin D producers and this is because, thousands of years ago, people who settled in northern Europe did not receive enough sunshine during the year and that made their skin even lighter while their body adapted to generate by itself the levels required by the organism.

Celebrations

Globally, the first Redhead Day Festival was held 13 years ago, when a photographer placed an ad in a newspaper that read “Redhead Casting. Show up at the square in Breda, The Netherlands, on September 7″. The result: hundreds of redheads from all over Europe showed up and since then that date has been chosen as “redhead day”.

Since then, the square in Breda has been the main venue for the annual celebration of those who have this particular shade of hair. This year, the celebration will take place over three days: from September 21 to 23.