Monkey Day celebrates it's 8th anniversary with a Charity Art Auction.

    LANSING, MI, November 16, 2008 MaiMai News -- This December 14th marks the 8th year of celebrating the "Monkey Day" holiday. Monkey Day is most often celebrated by simian enthusiasts engaging in lighthearted monkey themed parties and events. The official Monkey Day 'prime' celebration will be a silent charity art auction with all proceeds going to Chimps, Inc. (http://www.chimps-inc.org) a non-profit wildlife sanctuary located in Oregon, dedicated to chimpanzee conservation by providing refuge and education outreach. The art for auction is generously donated by local and international artists both human and simian! One of the resident chimps at Chimps Inc is quite an accomplished painter and will be donating one painting for auction. The Monkey Day art auction and celebration will be held at Basement 414 in Lansing, Michigan. In addition to the art auction several bands and musicians will be playing. For up to date information on satellite Monkey Day celebrations in your area, donating artists, and featured musical acts, visit http://www.MonkeyDay.com .

Monkey Day began years ago when in a stroke of random genius, a friend haphazardly scribbled the words "Monkey Day" on an arbitrary future date on another friend's calendar as a practical joke. When said day arrived, the group of friends observed the marked event and did what seemed reasonable; they threw together a last minute monkey themed party, gathered at a local bar, and Monkey Day was born. With each year, the holiday has grown, both in sheer popularity, geographical range, and scope. Popular ways of celebrating Monkey Day include throwing a monkey themed party, dressing up as your favorite simian, grunting like a chimp all day, grooming your loved ones, and throwing feces (for legal purposes, monkeyday.com in no way supports the latter form of celebration). Visit MonkeyDay.com for details and tips on starting your own local Monkey Day celebration. Since Monkey Day falls on December 14th, it has come to mean many things to many people. For those wishing to escape the commercialization of the more traditional winter holidays, or for the tens of thousands of college students looking to celebrate the end of exams, Monkey Day provides simply a reason to gather and celebrate. Darwinists, Pastafarians and many others see it as an antithesis to the religious holidays, for those it is a celebration of evolution.

For the first time ever, this year's official Monkey Day event is a charity art auction to benefit Chimps Inc, (www.chimps-inc.org) a nonprofit wildlife sanctuary. Chimps Inc. is a nonprofit, 501(C)3-1 wildlife sanctuary dedicated to furthering chimpanzee conservation and education outreach. It was founded by Lesley Day in 1995 in response to the multitude of captive chimpanzees desperately in need of homes. The private sanctuary provides a place of refuge for those apes that have come from roadside zoos, the entertainment industry and the private sector. And yes, we here at Monkey Day do indeed know that chimpanzees are not monkeys. Despite the specific, tongue in cheek name, Monkey Day is a day of celebration of all things simian. Simian Day just doesn't quite have the same ring to it! The charity silent art auction will be held on Sunday, December 14th, 6-12pm at the Basement 414 gallery in Lansing, MI. Admission is free, though donations of all kind are welcome. Attendees will have the opportunity to place bids on a variety of incredible artwork, including one piece actually painted by a Chimps, Inc. chimp resident. Musical entertainment will also be provided by the Hat Madder, Narc Out the Reds, Billy Jackson, and the Public Pubes. Additional Monkey Day events can be found on the Monkey Day website, updated as they are released.

Eat, drink, groom your friends and be merry indeed, but Monkey Day is more than simply another excuse to throw an Animal House like drunken bash. Whatever your reason to observe Monkey Day, we can agree on this -- that there should be a day to celebrate the amazing qualities beyond the DNA we share with our fellow simians, to educate about the many things that threaten the survival and quality of life of these sensitive animals, and to open a discussion of the ethical issues that arise when we talk habitat loss, poaching for bush meat and pets, entertainment exploitation, and the list goes on, and so should the dialogue. MonkeyDay.com is a year round committment to this dialogue. Monkeyday.com actively promotes websites relating to simian welfare, and preservation organizations. An online petition to make Monkey Day a nationally recognized holiday extolling the virtues of monkeys and primates has also been started online. Monkeyday.com also runs a blog newswire ( monkeydaynews.blogspot.com ) that keeps tabs on all news regarding monkeys and primates with subject ranges from the very strange, the scientific, the political and occasionally to the very adorable. Monkeyday.com has become the hub of all monkey related activities resulting from December 14th's annual Monkey Day celebration. Besides the features mentioned above, Monkeyday.com provides other monkey related entertainment for visitors including the fourth annual Monkey Web Comics Marathon, monkey themed drink and food ideas, a catalog of pictures from Monkey Day parties past, a listing of worldwide participants in Monkey Day, and pictures of our Monkey Day mascot, Sneem, on his worldwide travels. Those interested in starting a Monkey Day celebration in their home town can visit the website for tips and support and to register your event officially with MonkeyDay.com.

Artists interested in donating to the charity art auction are encouraged to contact Monkey Day before the submission deadline of December 12th, the submission form and instructions are available at the Monkey Day website.

For More Information:

Casey Sorrow
Monkey Day Foundation
312 Rumsey Ave.
Lansing, MI 48912
monkeydaypress@gmail.com
http://www.monkeyday.com/

Chimps Inc.
http://www.chimps-inc.org

Contributing artists :

Carl Oxley III (popartmonkey.com)
Eric Millikin (ericmonster.com)
Casey Sorrow (caseysorrow.com)
Whitney Sorrow (edgybibliopegy.blogspot.com)
Kaern Shinaver (kaeroseen.com)
Nathan Kukla

Scheduled musicians:

The Hat Madder (www.thehatmadder.com)
Public Pubes (myspace.com/publicpubes)
Billy Jackson (myspace.com/bradfordjackson)

Updated lists available at monkeyday.com