International Everest Day
Next: May 29, 2027
Top of the world, two together.
The story
Where it comes from
On 29 May 1953 Edmund Hillary, a beekeeper from New Zealand, and the Sherpa climber Tenzing Norgay became the first people to stand on the summit of Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. Hillary died in January 2008, aged 88, and that May Nepal's government announced that 29 May would be International Everest Day, to honour the first ascent and pay tribute to both men. Nepal also uses the day to show the world its mountains.
How it's celebrated
Nepal's embassies hold programmes where summiteers tell their stories and climbers are honoured. Some add a talk on climate change in the Himalayas, which Nepali officials call the 'Water Tower of Asia', or a clean-up walk. Anywhere else, it is a day to climb your own hill, read an expedition story, or send a card to someone who is working towards a summit of their own.
Did you know
- Everest's Nepali name, Sagarmatha, joins sagar, 'sky', and matha, 'head': the forehead of the sky.
- On 8 December 2020 Nepal and China jointly announced its official height as 8,848.86 metres, a little more than earlier figures.
- More than 6,000 Sherpas live in Sagarmatha National Park, around the mountain, which UNESCO made a World Heritage site in 1979.
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