March 30 is Doctors’ Day, an annual observance aimed at appreciating physicians who help save lives everywhere. The holiday first started in 1933 in Winder, Georgia, and since then it’s been honored every year on March 30 which was the first anniversary of a doctor using ether anesthesia by Dr. Crawford W. Long. Today we continue to celebrate medical advances like these and thank all doctors everywhere who’ve spent so much time and energy mastering their field of expertise.
HISTORY OF DOCTORS’ DAY
Eudora Brown Almond, the wife of a doctor in Georgia, believed her husband and other physicians deserved more recognition for their hard work and set out to make this idea a reality. The first observed Doctors’ Day occurred on March 30, 1933, exactly 91 years after Dr. Long’s remarkable discovery.
Almond mailed greeting cards to all local physicians and their wives, and she put flowers on the graves of deceased doctors, including Dr. Long. The flowers were red carnations, which would later become the representative flower for the national holiday. A few other local doctors’ wives even assisted Almond in preparing a celebratory luncheon so their husbands’ work in healthcare could be publicly appreciated.
The tradition of delivering greeting cards to physicians, both alive and dead, has continued throughout the years and is still a common way of celebrating this holiday today. The red carnation is also still popularly used to say “thank you” to doctors for their work in medicine.
Doctors’ Day was unofficially celebrated for many years before it became a legal holiday. On March 30, 1958, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution that commemorates Doctors’ Day and on October 30, 1990, George W. Bush signed the legislature after approval from both the House and the Senate.
However, other countries celebrate their doctors on a different day than we do, often to recognize an important physician from their country. Spain, Cuba, and Argentina celebrate on December 3 to commemorate Dr. Carlos Juan Finlay’s birthday, who famously identified mosquitos as the cause of yellow fever. India celebrates on July 1 to commemorate the birthday of Dr. B. C. Roy, who also sadly died on that date.
Source: National Today
