Right now, we’re going to take just a moment to do a thought exercise. We want everyone reading this today to try to imagine their life without toilet paper. Go ahead, think about it. It’s not a pleasant thought, is it? That should illustrate just how important toilet paper is to modern society.

It’s so important to us that whenever there’s an emergency and a run on grocery stores, toilet paper is one of the first things people fight over. So it shouldn’t be surprising that someone has decided to invent a holiday dedicated to toilet paper. This day is known as National Toilet Paper Day, and it’s observed annually on August 26th.

The History of National Toilet Paper Day

Paper has been around since the 2nd century B.C., but the first recorded use of it for cleaning people’s backsides after they used the bathroom was in the 6th century. Before then, there were a variety of solutions employed to handle that job.

In ancient Rome, there was a communal stick with a sponge on the end of it that people used to clean themselves. When one person was done with it, they’d simply rinse it off for the next person. Other solutions included rags, bamboo, and even corn cobs.

Unfortunately, we don’t know who invented National Toilet Paper Day. It was a holiday that just showed up one day. All that we really know about this holiday is that it’s used to commemorate the first time that toilet paper was ever sold on a roll.

That happened on August 26th, 1871, in the United States. Nowadays, the world uses over 42 million tons of toilet paper each and every year.

Observing National Toilet Paper Day

Well, we’re not going to tell anyone how they should celebrate National Toilet Paper Day, but we will offer a few suggestions. People can learn more about the history of toilet paper, they can buy toilet paper, or they can spread the word about this holiday online using the hashtag #NationalToiletPaperDay.