Start Your Own Country Day

According to multiple online sources, Start Your Own Country Day was created at the 1939 New York World's Fair, to honor "those free-spirited souls who dared to hope and believe in a better world where they too could declare any land their own." Indeed, the exhibits of the fair were meant to showcase the "World of Tomorrow," so in a sense, the fair was exhibiting what a country in the future may look like. However, we were unable to find any sources contemporaneous to the time of the fair to corroborate that the day was created there.

The day is meant to get you thinking about starting your own country and what needs to be done if you want to do so. The Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States, signed in 1933, says that countries need to meet four criteria to be recognized internationally: they need territory, a government, a permanent population, and the ability to have relations with other states. But, many micronations have been created, many of which do not meet all of these criteria. Many of their creators still consider them as countries and don't care if others see them as such. A few examples of micronations are The Principality of New Utopia, Kugelmugel, and The Principality of Hutt River.

How to Observe Start Your Own Country Day

Here are a few ways to celebrate the day:

• Read various sources on how to create a country or micronation.
• Come up with a name, as well as a flag, motto, currency, and political system for your own country.
• Read about some micronations, and plan a trip to visit some.
• Watch How to Start Your Own Country, a documentary produced by the BBC.
• Play a government simulation game such as Nations or NationStates.
• Read about, or look at some pictures from the 1939 New York World's Fair.

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