When is National Sense Of Smell Day in 2019? Well, you are not mistaken now. The holiday like this does really exist in the contemporary calendar and you are free to celebrate it. However, we know for sure that not modern men and women know about its existence, so today we are going to investigate the special occasion in details and to share the available pieces of information in details.
History
Certainly, we know quite well that the direction what day Sense Of Smell Day in 2019 is can’t be so easy, as it may seem at the first sight to the most part of our readers. This amazing type of holiday contains something extraordinary or even terrific.
As a rule, our readers want to understand why this holiday appeared. Unfortunately, we can’t tell you about it. We know nothing about the historical background of the event. The reasons to celebrate it on the last Saturday in April are unknown as well.
However, to tell you the truth, we are sure that the establishers were romantic people, as they wanted to recover some moments of their life and to do it with the help of the odors. Well, this is a perfect experience, which was known to people even in the ancient times.
Meaning
What does Sense Of Smell Day mean? To tell you the truth, we are not sure whether you are going to celebrate this event or not. In fact, it is up to you to decide it. There are many people, who have never heard about this day, so they won’t celebrate, of course.
It is believed that the sense of odor in the life of modern people plays a much smaller role than, for example, sight or hearing. They say that we are different from animals for which smell is the main regulator of both sexual behavior and behavior in general. But we are all the representatives of the surrounding world.
Therefore, the fact that the world of smells from the point of view of controlling our behavior is often underestimated can be considered strange. For example, it has long been established that the olfactory impulse reaches the brain much faster than the pain. Women who are brought in by other babies in the maternity hospital determine the substitution by odor. Similarly, newborns, not seeing or hearing the mother, distinguish her from any other person by smell.
Some deterioration in the perception of odors is considered one of the forerunners of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. At the same time people with a spectrum of autistic disorders also have a bad smell.
All in all about 10% of healthy people have a state of alexithymia, when it is difficult to recognize one’s own and other people’s emotions and pick up words for them. Such people are also inherent in insensitivity to odors.
Definition
Investigating the question “When is International Sense Of Smell Day 2019?” we came to the conclusion that our readers need the introduction of some additional pieces of information. For example, have you ever heard how we perceive smells? As a rule, people do not think about it.
All in all there are two types of odor perception. They are the recognition of smell and the generation of autobiographical memories.
- In accordance with the specialists’ points of view, women are generally more sensitive to odors than men.
- Olfactory bulbs are part of the limbic system of the brain. This system is a collection of evolutionarily ancient sites responsible for emotions and a sense of security. Odor information goes directly to the hippocampus — it forms an associative memory, and the amygdale — it processes sensual memories and forms emotional memory. From there, the signal goes directly to the thalamus – another region that determines our attentiveness and priorities. That is why we react to smells involuntarily and cannot ignore them. Sight doesn’t have such privileges. Only when the signals about the smells arrive in the cortex of the hemispheres, we can recognize them.
- Smelling is important not only for wild animals, but also for people. It is believed that in the choice of sexual partners, people, to a certain extent, are guided by smells. Children begin to study smells in the womb and subsequently have a preference for those that did not cause stress to the mother. Infants remember the smells that accompany the caress of parents, and calm down from them.
Traditions
When is Sense Of Smell Day in 2019, calendar will surely remind you. As a rule, it is not a problem. However, you have to be careful, if you are planning to take part and to be involved. The main problem is that the holiday doesn’t have a fixed date. As a rule, it is celebrated on the last Saturday in April. This year it will happen in April 27th, but the next year the date will be different, so you should mind this feature.
As you perhaps understand, there are no special traditions devoted to that holiday. Neither state nor local authorities usually celebrate it. It simultaneously means that you have to invent something special if you are planning to be involved.
Now everybody knows that there are some peculiar benefits of smells. What about something special? You can even organize the contests and see whether your friends are ready to guess the fruit or any dish only by smell. It is going to be amazing.
For example, the ancient practice of aromatherapy uses smells to modulate emotions and body conditions. For example, for most Americans and Europeans, the feeling of happiness causes the smell of vanilla, the vivacity of citrus aromas, and the smell of lavender is considered soothing.
In the East, jasmine is called the smell of appeasement, and the scent of roses is associated with energy and happiness. Clinical studies have shown a certain efficacy of aromatherapy and massage while overcoming depression. However, the strange thing is that in cancer patients, on the contrary, it increased anxiety.
National Sense Of Smell Day Facts
Talking about the question “What is the date of Sense Of Smell Day in 2019?” we want to share some amazing facts concerning this direction.
The smell of grandma’s house or mother’s roll with cinnamon takes us into the past and awakens entire stories that were hidden in memory.
Why do smells so easily raise a wave of memories? This phenomenon is the name of the phenomenon of Proust, scientific explanation and even practical application. The smell of “Madeleine” cupcake softened in linden tea was brought to adult Marcel Proust by full details of childhood memories that seemed completely forgotten. This literary episode gave the name of the awakening smells of memories of past events.
In contrast to the memories generated by words or images, the Proust phenomenon concerns mainly childhood events and is much brighter and more emotional. The phenomenon of Proust is related not generally to smells, but only to those that we experienced sharply and briefly, for example, the aroma of holiday baking or perfume of first love.
It turns out that waves of memories and a feeling of nostalgia are useful for our well-being. Smells, memories, mental sensations and the work of the heart and the immune system are amazingly connected. The effect of odors is ahead of the realization by the cerebral cortex of why we feel these very emotions right now. Smell-filled memories can calm and reduce inflammation, but at the same time even provoke post-traumatic syndrome.