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Towel Day is celebrated every May 25 as a tribute by fans of the late author Douglas Adams. The commemoration was first held in 2001, two weeks after his death on May 11, and since then has been extended to an annual event. On this day, fans carry a towel with them throughout the day. The towel is a reference to Adams's popular science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has a few things to say on the subject of towels. A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value—you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you—daft as a brush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.
More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag [non-hitch hiker] discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, face flannel, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have 'lost'. What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

– Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 3

Other possible dates were 11 February (42nd day of the year), 11 March (Birthday), 2 April (4/2), 11 May (his death), 22 June (42 days after his death), and 18 October (42nd Thursday of his year of death). 25 May was chosen because it was as close to his death as expedient notification of fans could allow, and kept by custom although there were some attempts to switch to one of the alternate dates.

The original article that began Towel Day was posted at "Binary Freedom", a short lived Open Source forum.

Towel Day: A Tribute to Douglas Adams
Monday May 14, 2001 06:00am PDT
Clyde ponders the passing of an incredible mind and proposes a "Towel Day" in tribute.
Friday morning I went to breakfast at Big Boy's (mmmm, Breakfast Bar); oddly enough, we sat in booth "42" and had a good laugh about it being the answer to "Life, The Universe and Everything". Later that day, headlines flashed the news that Douglas Adams, creator of the longest trilogy in history, had died. I was stunned; it was reminiscent of the loss I felt when Jim Henson died.
Douglas Adams will be missed by his fans worldwide. So that all his fans everywhere can pay tribute to this genius, I propose that two weeks after his passing (May 25, 2001) be marked as "Towel Day". All Douglas Adams fans are encouraged to carry a towel with them for the day.
Make sure that the towel is conspicuous- use it as a talking point to encourage those who have never read the Hitchhiker's Guide to go pick up a copy. Wrap it around your head, use it as a weapon, soak it in nutrients- whatever you want!
Most minds in the universe are constrained to the laws of Physics; let us remember those who broke the law and got away with it.
So long Douglas, and thanks for all the fish!

– D Clyde Williamson 2001-05-14 (reprinted here with permission)

• Ford Prefect got his large bath towel from Marks and Spencer

“

...in Ford Prefect's satchel were a few ballpoints, a notepad and a largish bath towel from Marks and Spencer.

”

Adams, Douglas (1997). The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide. 201 East 50th Street, New York, New York 10022: Portland House. ISBN 0517124858. 

• Towel Day website
• Fan posting proposing the idea on h2g2
• Discordian version The holyday described in Ek-sen-trik-kuh Discordia: The Tales of Shamlicht

	v • d • e The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy By Douglas Adams
Books:	The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | The Restaurant at the End of the Universe | Life, the Universe and Everything | So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish | Mostly Harmless | Young Zaphod Plays it Safe | The Salmon of Doubt | The Original Radio Scripts
Media:	Radio series (Phases 1 & 2, Phases 3, 4 & 5) | TV series | Movie | Computer game | Differences between versions | Cast lists
Characters:	Arthur Dent | Ford Prefect | Zaphod Beeblebrox | Marvin | Trillian | Slartibartfast | The Guide | Minor characters
Places:	List of places | Total Perspective Vortex | Heart of Gold | Wikkit Gate | Starship Titanic | Galactic Empire | Whole Sort of General Mish Mash
Miscellanea:	The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything | Babel fish | Bistromathic drive | Cultural references | h2g2 | Infinidim Enterprises | Infinite Improbability Drive | International Phenomenon | Notable phrases | Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster | Point-of-view gun | Races and species | Somebody Else's Problem field | Sirius Cybernetics Corporation | Towel Day | Vogon poetry | Other miscellanea