System Administrator Appreciation Day, also known as Sysadmin Day, SysAdminDay, SAD or SAAD, was created by system administrator Ted Kekatos. Kekatos was inspired to create the special day by a Hewlett-Packard magazine advertisement in which a system administrator is presented with flowers and fruit-baskets by grateful co-workers as thanks for installing new printers. Kekatos had just installed several of the same model printer at his workplace.
The holiday exists to show appreciation for the work of sysadmins and other IT workers. It is celebrated on the last Friday in July. The first System Administrator Appreciation Day was celebrated on July 28, 2000. The official SysAdmin Day website includes many suggestions for the proper observation of the holiday. Most common is cake and ice cream. Many SysAdmin Day cakes are featured on photo sharing websites.
- 2011: July 29
- 2012: July 27
- 2013: July 26
- 2014: July 25
- 2015: July 31
Many geek and Internet culture businesses, such as ThinkGeek and CafePress, also honor the holiday with special product offerings and contests. Various filk songs have been written to commemorate the day. The songs have reached a level of popularity where they are also covered by other performers.
Attempts to have Hallmark Cards recognize the holiday as a Hallmark Holiday have yet to be realized. Many e-card websites already have special SysAdminDay cards available.
The holiday has been recognized and promoted by many IT professional organizations, the League of Professional System Administrators and SAGE/USENIX.
Famous quotes containing the words system, appreciation and/or day:
“We now come to the grand law of the system in which we are placed, as it has been developed by the experience of our race, and that, in one word, is SACRIFICE!”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)
“We are tempted to say that his genius was feminine, not masculine. It was such a feminineness, however, as is rarest to find in woman, though not the appreciation of it; perhaps it is not to be found at all in woman, but is only the feminine in man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“And you’re too fired up to go to sleep, you sit at the kitchen table. It’s really late, it’s really quiet, you’re tired. Don’t wanna go to bed, though. Going to bed means this was the day. This Feb. 12, this Aug. 3, this Nov. 20 is over and you’re tired and you made some money but it didn’t happen, nothing happened. You got through it and a whole day of your life is over. And all it is—is time to go to bed.”
—Claudia Shear, U.S. author. New York Times, p. A21 (September 29, 1993)