International Left-Handers Day

International Left-Handers Day is observed on 13th August, to raise awareness of left-handedness and the challenges caused by living in such a right-handed world.

The day was first observed in 1976 by Dean R. Campbell, founder of Lefthanders International, Inc.

Left-handed people make up roughly 12% of the world’s population, and Males are twice as likely to be left-handed than females. In this slim minority, lefties are forced to deal with a glut of daily-use products that were designed with right-handers in mind. These include three-ring binders, scissors, ballpoint pens, signature pads, digital clocks, playing cards, and zippers.

Scientists don’t know why a person develops left-handedness, but it’s more likely a child will be left-handed if one parent is lefty.

Lefties in history

During the Middle Ages, left-handed folk was thought to be possessed by the Devil – prompting the modern definition of the word sinister which comes from sinistra, the Latin word for left. The English word left comes from the Old English Lyft, meaning idle, weak, or useless. The French word for left, gauche, also means clumsy or awkward.

Especially Christianity is strongly biased towards the right hand. It is the right hand that gives the blessing and makes the sign of the cross. The bible contains more than 100 favorable references to the right hand and 25 unfavorable references to the left hand.

Stone Age implements discovered seem equally divided between left and right and studies of cave drawings have indicated a preference for the left hand.

Meanwhile, the Meru people of Kenya believed that the left hand of their holy man possessed such evil power that he had to keep it hidden for the safety of others.

Popular Lefties

There are some famous left-handers, including former President Barack Obama, President Ronald Reagan, Albert Einstein, Prince William, Jimi Hendrix, Oprah Winfrey, and Bill Gates.

Some of the great, left-handed athletes include Babe Ruth, Wayne Gretzky, Bill Russell, and Joe Frazier. And when it comes to A-list Hollywood celebrities, Robert De Niro, Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, and Morgan Freeman belong to the lefties club.

The Left-Handers Club began launching events dedicated to left-handed people in 1990 throughout the world. There are more than 20 events, which include left-v-right sports matches, a left-handed tea party, pubs that exclusively use left-handed corkscrews, left-handed pub games, and the encouragement of left-handed objects.

According to the website, the events are used to draw general awareness to the daily difficulties left-handed people have to go through living in a right-handed world. Whether they have to use left-handed can openers, or face the difficulty of opening a front draw, or even simply suffer writing on a notepad left-to-right, which drags the ink underneath their hands, the bottom line is that left-handed people are inconvenienced.

10 traits of a left-hander

1. According to a study left-handers are better drivers than people who are right-handed.

2. In time-sensitive sports right-handed people find it hard to compete and adjust against left-handed people. Left-handed people are good in some sports as compared to right-handed.

3. Researchers believe that left-handed people are wired in a way that makes them able to recover from a stroke better than right-handed people.

4. Left-handers are fast typists, left-handed typists can type up to 3,400 words on the standard QWERTY keyboard, which compares very poorly with 450 words for those using only their right hand.

5. They are more likely to excel in creative and visual arts. They have some pretty solid proof, too: Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo were all lefties.

6. Lefties have always had to think more quickly, as they have always faced right-handed challenges. This pays off later in life because the communication between both of their brain hemispheres is that much faster and more efficient.

7. Being left-handed is more common in twins. One study found that 21 percent of twins are left-handed.

8. Left-handed people are said to be good at complex reasoning, resulting in a high number of lefty Noble Prize winners, writers, artists, musicians, architects, and mathematicians.

9. According to myth, giving a toast with your left hand is the same as placing a curse on the person you’re saluting.

10. Word is, left-handed college graduates, go on to become 26 percent richer than right-handed students.

The day pays tribute to all those hard-working left-handed people out there who have to put up with the bias of a mostly right-handed world.

Left-handers day quotes

• If the left half of the brain controls the right half of the body then only left-handed people are in the right mind. W.C. Fields

• Left-handers don’t just write differently, we also think differently.

• Left-Handers are not different because they are unique; They are unique because they are different. – Peter-Cole C. Onele

• God made everyone right-handed, only the truly gifted overcome it.

• God made everyone right-handed, the truly gifted overcome it.

• Left-handers are wired into the artistic half of the brain, which makes them imaginative, creative, surprising, ambiguous, exasperating, stubborn, emotional, witty, obsessive, infuriating, delightful, original, but never, never, dull. – James T deKay

• The left-handed are precious; they take places that are inconvenient for the rest.

• Being a right-hander, I don’t know what kind of problems left-handed people go through every day. I wish every left-hander on International Left-Handers’ Day.

• Being a left-hander makes you different and unique. Embrace it! Happy International Left-Handers’ Day.

• I’m used to being in the minority. I’m a left-handed gay Jew. I’ve never felt, automatically, a member of any majority. – Barney Frank

• Life without left-handed people wouldn’t be right. C.R. Manske

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