Celebrate Bingo in December, when the game turns 80.

The New Year is here and so is our list of offbeat holidays you might not spot on your 2009 calendar

JANUARY

18: Winnie the Pooh Day

20: Penguin Awareness Day

28: National Kazoo Day

FEBRUARY

6: Bubble Gum Day. Donate 50 cents to charity and you might get to chew bubble gum at school.

18: It’s the 79th anniversary of a cow being milked while flying in an airplane.

National Pet Dental Health Month. (Don’t let Fido chew gum!)

MARCH

2-8: National Cheerleading Week.

National Pig Month.

National Umbrella Month.

APRIL

2: April Fool’s Day. *

12: Big Wind Day. The highest winds ever recorded (231 mph) were documented in New Hampshire in 1934.

MAY

6: No Homework Day.

10: Mother’s Day.

National Bike Month.

JUNE

5: 226th anniversary of the first hot-air balloon flight.

21: Father’s Day.

National Candy Month. (Yum!)

JULY

1: The first U.S. zoo opened in Philadelphia in 1874.

19: National Ice Cream Day.

National Family Reunion Month. (Have one at the zoo; don’t forget the ice cream.)

AUGUST

1: Girlfriend’s Day

7-9: Twinsburg Twins Days (world’s biggest gathering of twins and triplets).

19: Root beer float invented in 1893.

SEPTEMBER

7: Great Bathtub Race in Nome, Alaska.

7: Grandparents Day.

22: Eat Dinner as a Family Day. (Don’t forget to invite the grandparents!)

OCTOBER

1: Disney World opened in 1971.

16: Dictionary Day.

Squirrel Awareness Month.

NOVEMBER

1: Hockey goalie mask invented in 1959.

20: Universal Children’s Day.

22-28: National Game and Puzzle Week.

DECEMBER

4: National Dice Day.

21: Pilgrims land in Plymouth, Mass., in 1620.

Bingo’s Birthday Month. (The game was invented in 1929.)

* Fooled ya! It’s April 1.