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Towel Day: All you need to know about history, significance, celebrations and quotes
Towel Day honours Douglas Adams, the writer of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The day will be celebrated with great enthusiasm in cities including New York, London, Hong Kong and Gurugram.

If you are a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, there are two things you always remember. First, the answer to "the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything” is 42. Second, Towel Day is on 25 May.If you see any hitchhiker fans brandishing a towel today, don’t panic. Remember that they are paying tribute to Douglas Adams, the author of the bestselling science-fiction series.The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy revolves around the life of Arthur Dent, who wakes up one Thursday to find out that his house is being demolished. Through a series of baffling events, the Earth itself is destroyed, and Dent hitchhikes with his friend Ford Prefect, beginning a series of adventures that remain loved till date.Why is the day celebrated?The day honours Douglas Adams, the writer of the much-loved series. Two weeks after the humourist’s death in 2001, several fans decided to honour his memory by celebrating the most important piece of cloth for any intergalactic hitchhiker- a towel. According to Ford, a character in Adams’ hit novel, a towel “is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have.”The day celebrates the impact Adams’ writing had on the science fiction genre and how he remains an inspiration to many worldwide. Fans of the writer celebrate Towel Day to honour his humourous writing style.Celebrations: This year, virtual celebrations will be organised around the world including London, New York, Hong Kong and even Gurugram. The Kunzum Bookstore in Gurugram will celebrate Towel Day with a slew of events, including a quiz, a dramatic reading and much more.Quotes:To mark Towel Day, here are some quotes from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy:
- “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”
- “He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it.”
- "There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss."
- "Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws.”
- “He was staring at the instruments with the air of one who is trying to convert Fahrenheit to centigrade in his head while his house is burning down.”
- "It is a well known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."
- "In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move."
First Published:May 25, 2022, 05:47:43 IST
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