bloomsday

/ˈbluːmz.deɪ/

Etymology

From the name of Leopold Bloom, protagonist of Ulysses + -s- + day.

Why this word is great

BLOOMSDAY — [Noun] A literary holiday observed annually on 16 June, celebrating James Joyce's Ulysses by retracing protagonist Leopold Bloom's Dublin odyssey. From the proper name Bloom (Leopold Bloom, protagonist of Ulysses) + -s- (connective) + day. Unlike 'Joyceans' (a term for Joyce scholars that lacks the festive dimension) or 'EpiphanyDay' (which references Joyce's other works but misses Ulysses' specific chronotope), Bloomsday is a secular communion with the mundane: the clink of lemon soap in a pocket, the tang of burgundy wine and Gorgonzola sandwiches, the collective recitation of Molly Bloom's soliloquy as night falls—where pavement cracks become sacred texts for the devout of Dublin.

noun

  1. An annual celebration (on 16 June, in Dublin and elsewhere) of the life of Irish writer James Joyce and the events depicted in his novel Ulysses.“I happened into a meeting of the James Joyce Society last Bloomsday (June 16) at the Gotham Book Mart in New York, an unlikely stop for me; for such gatherings usually have the odor of formaldehyde about them. But not this one.”