Alien Day: What is its origins and what does it celebrate?

Alien Day falls on April 26 every year, but what is it all about and what does it actually celebrate? Aliens in general or the movie franchise of the same name? (This post’s picture may give that answer away.)

It’s always illuminating to discover the origin stories and histories for the days on the Weird Holidays & Observances page. Since we haven’t done that for Alien Day yet, let’s remedy that this year. Here’s what we found out about this out of the world day.

What is Alien Day about?

According to Days of the Year, Alien Day “is an awesome day to recognize and appreciate the fantastic world of the Alien(s) franchise.”

Origins

The first unofficial Alien Day took place in spring 2015 when fans of the movie decided to celebrate the Alien film series in Brooklyn, New York.

But why 2015? Was that when it was announced there’d be another movie coming in 2017, Alien: Covenant? Were they excited about that?

Honestly, I don’t know. I do know the date it’s celebrated has significance though.

The Date

According to the Alien Anthology Wiki, in the movie, LV-426, now called Acheron, was one of three moons orbiting the planet Calpamos. A crew from the USCSS Nostromo went to investigate a signal emanating from Acheron/LV-426.

They discovered a derelict spacecraft, the bodies of its crew, a bunch of eggs, and a “facehugger,” which would later play a part in creating one of the most memorable scenes in science fiction-horror movie history. (You know which one I’m talking about. The baby alien exploding out of the chest scene.)

The “facehugger” was a Xenomorph and it eventually led to the destruction of the crew aboard the Nostromo —and also went on to spawn five other movies in the franchise, not counting Alien vs. Predator, which has since morphed into a series of its own.

Anyway, because LV-426 is the origin of the Xenomorphs, a.k.a. aliens, April 26 (4-26), was picked as the date to celebrate Alien Day. Makes sense.

Making Alien Day Official

In 2016, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the second movie in the franchise, Aliens, 20th Century Fox got in on the act to make the day official.

One of the events they sponsored was a 24-hour trivia challenge that they conducted on Twitter. They posted new questions every 42.6 minutes and gave out prizes consisting of collectible items and wearable ones relating to the franchise.

Well, that answers that. Here I thought Alien Day was a tribute to aliens in general. I didn’t know it had anything to do with the movies.

Alien Franchise Trivia

1. The first four films are Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), and Alien Resurrection (1997). The next two movies in the series are prequels, Prometheus (2012), and Alien: Covenant (2017).
2. Ridley Scott directed three of the six movies, the original Alien, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant.
3. Titanic director James Cameron directed Aliens.
4. Alien 3 was David Fincher’s directorial debut.
5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer series creator Joss Whedon wrote Alien Resurrection.

Check-In

Did you know the aliens in the Alien franchise had a name and were called Xenomorphs?

I didn’t. I always just called them the scary, ugly, man-eating alien creatures.