Today is: Polar Bear Swim Day

News-Messenger/News Journal
·1 min read
Participants in the Polar Bear Plunge fundraiser at Farmington Lake on New Year's Day whoop it up after going for a quick, unpleasant swim in Farmington, New Mexico.
Participants in the Polar Bear Plunge fundraiser at Farmington Lake on New Year's Day whoop it up after going for a quick, unpleasant swim in Farmington, New Mexico.

Polar Bear Swim Day, or Polar Bear Plunge Day, is a day each year dedicated to taking a polar bear plunge, where participants enter a cold body of water as part of a challenge or for charity. Although polar bear plunges take place throughout the colder months, the most popular day for them is on New Year's Day, making it fitting that today would be Polar Bear Swim Day. If the challenge of plunging into ice-cold water can be done on the first day of the year, it should be easier to tackle many other challenges throughout the year.

Polar bear plunges on New Year's Day are most popular in Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States. The earliest known polar bear plunge occurred in Boston in 1904.

Source: Checkiday.com

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Today is: Polar Bear Swim Day