Celebrate International Left-Handers Day on August 13!
International Left-Handers Day is August 13! To celebrate, here are some fun facts and folklore about being left-handed. Right on, left-handers!
Years ago, some teachers insisted that all students, including left-handers, learn to write with their right hand. Teachers thought that students would have an easier time if they were not “different” from right-handed writers. Some thought that using the left hand was just a bad habit. Some even slapped or punished left-handed kids who had trouble!
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Now we know that everyone should use whichever hand is most comfortable. Today, 10 to 12 percent of the world’s population is left-handed. It’s not surprising that lefties sometimes feel “left out.” Plenty of superstitions and odd terms regarding left-handedness exist.
Left-Hander Superstitions and Terms
- Sinistrophobia is the fear of left-handedness or things on the left side.
- Many people believe that the devil is left-handed.
- The Latin word for left, sinister, also means unlucky, evil, and suspicious.
- The French word for left, gauche, also means clumsy.
- A left-handed compliment is an insult.
- It is believed that all polar bears are left-handed.
- A left-handed baseball pitcher is called a southpaw. (And no, there’s no such thing as a northpaw!)
Why are some people left-handed and others right-handed?
Scientists aren’t sure what causes left-handedness. Genetics plays a role, but it’s not the whole story. For example, identical twins have the same DNA, but it is common for one twin to be right-handed and the other to be left-handed.
Many left-handers have a symmetrical brain, meaning that the left and right portions of their brain are shaped alike. Right-handers often have an asymmetrical brain: The left cerebral hemisphere is often larger than the right cerebral hemisphere.
No matter the shape of your brain, or the hand you favor, here’s what we have—um—left:
Left-Handed Facts and Trivia
The Left Test
There’s no sure way to measure “handedness.” One of the most widely-used tests is called the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory (developed in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 1970s). This test asks participants which hand they most often use for a series of activities, including writing, eating, drawing, throwing, cutting with scissors, brushing teeth, and unscrewing a lid.
Left-handed Burgers? Baloney!
A full-page ad in USA Today in 1998 claimed that Burger King had developed the “left-handed whopper.” The burger had the same fixings, but they were turned 180 degrees so that they wouldn’t drip out on left-handed customers. It was a joke! The ad ran on April 1 (April Fools’ Day).
Lefties Day
August 13 is International Left-Handers Day! The tradition was started by the Left-Handers Club, a group in the United Kingdom. Club members around the world give interviews and play left-handed games.
Left-hander Heaven?
Lefties might want to travel to Left Hand, West Virginia, where there is a church, a school, and a post office. The village was so named because it sits on the left-hand fork of the Big Sandy River, not because of the way its citizens write.
Left-handed Reward
A few left-handers attending Juniata College in Pennsylvania have benefited from a scholarship just for left-handers established in 1979 by Mary and Frederick Beckley, two left-handers who met when they attended tennis class together in 1919.
If you’re right-handed, try writing with your left. If you’re left-handed, try brushing your teeth with your right. You’re likely to find these activities surprisingly difficult.
So, tell us below if you are a lefty or righty and what you’ve observed about this phenomenon called handedness!
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I am both I have one son that is a lefty and two daughters that are right handed. People can Believe what they want to but personally God created everyone to be different for a reason thank goodness he did the world would be boring if everybody was the same or everyone one would be fighting more than usual either way not be good.. Have a great day y'all
My mother, older sister and one son are left handed as am I. I bat right handed, hockey, either way, golf right handed and everything else is left handed. Funny how they call snow boarding goofy if you are a lefty and your strong foot is on the back of the board and you are facing the other way from others. I I had a hard time playing baseball at first because I did not have a glove for my right hand so had to catch the ball with my left, take the glove off and throw the ball from out field with my left hand. Did it for years because I did not have a glove for a leftie. All in all, you learn to adapt.
I'm left-handed, and my second grade teacher wrote in my school file that I am a "throw-back"! Luckily, my parents thought she was the problem, not my lefthanded-ness. Most school desks from elementary school through graduate school tweaked my back because I had to twist to write on the little flat space provided under your right arm - hope they have more neutral seating now for students, but as a recently retired teacher, that isn't what I've observed. I fear I might "fail" the lefthanded test developed in the '70's, because I have had to do so many things with both hands (use scissors, etc.) that the adapted versions seem awkward to me because I am not used to them. Golfing hitting baseballs, and other "hitting" activities are a dilemma for me, because neither side feels better, although I definitely prefer left-handed bowling. I believe most lefties are somewhat ambidextrous if for no other reason than we have had no choice but to adapt to a right-handed world. Not too many left-handed ladles out there, for example. I'm tired of trying to learn things by attempting a mirror image, and sick of looking at brand names upside down on pens and pencils - other than that, I love being a lefty!
I'm left-handed. My father was left -handed too. I do most things with my left hand. When I was in school, there wasn't left hand scissors. So I learned to cut with right hand scissors. I am a seamstress. I cut with my right-hand. I can't use left handed scissors. They feel awkward! I do open jars with my right hand. I'm not athletic so throwing a ball happens with which ever hand has the ball. Ha-ha-ha!
I am left handed when I write. I have taught myself how to use my left hand because I hurt my right wrist. Now I can brush my teeth with my left hand, brush my hair with my left hand & eat with my left hand.
I am totally left handed, so is my husband and one of my daughters. I remember my friend saying to me, when I watch you writing it looks weird, I replied how do you think I feel watching you, she said I didn’t think of that.
I am a lefty but do many right hand things like mouse, but writing and drawing left. When I tie my shoes I contribute the perfect bow to watching my siblings tie theirs from in front of them
At school they would always try to put me at a left handed desk but I couldn’t write worth anything, I learned how to write upside down so as not to smear at a right handed desk
I'm a lefty, when I was a child I used to watch my mother cut out patterns to sew. She was a lefty but was forced to use her right hand. She let me help cut out the patterns and I learned to do this right handed. In school i was always given left handed scissors and couldnt use them. As an adult i taught myself to use the mouse with the right. This helped with grabbing the phone with the left while navigating the computer.
I guess I`m just kinda ambidextrous .........LEFT: write, eat, toothbrush, hammer, (L&R) and most small tasks.........RIGHT: throw, hammer (L&R), bat, screwdriver, dominate right eye (shooting a weapon). My Grandparents raised me and along with my teachers never tried to make me change. I`m glad about that!!
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