NATIONAL BUTTON WEEK
The third week in March is National Button Week and raises awareness of the usefulness of buttons. It also publicizes the fun of button collecting and recognizes the study and display of antique and collectible buttons.
The oldest button ever found was in the Indus Valley Civilization, now Pakistan.The button is made of a curved shell and dates back 5,000 years. In addition, archeologists have found ornamental buttons in sites dating back to 2800–2600 b.c.
In 1918 the U.S. Government made an extensive survey of the international button market, which listed buttons made of vegetable ivory, metal, glass, Galalith, silk, linen, cotton-covered crochet, lead, snap fasteners, glass, enamel, rubber, buckhorn, wood, horn, bone, leather, paper, pressed cardboard, mother-of-pearl, celluloid, porcelain, composition, tin, zinc, xylonite, stone, cloth-covered wooden forms, and paper-mâché.
The National Button Society recognized button collecting as an organized society hobby with its founding in 1938
Did you know? Koumpounophobia is the fear of buttons and is surprisingly common.
HOW TO OBSERVE #NationalButtonWeek
- Share your button collection or crafts made with button collections.
- Create something from buttons.
- Start a button collection!
- Consider how different life would be without buttons.
- Join the National Button Society.
- Visit the site Button Floozies.
- Use #NationalButtonWeek to share on social media.
NATIONAL BUTTON WEEK HISTORY
National Button Week started in 1989 by the National Button Society and occurs in the third week of March.