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The First Friday In August Means It's International Beer Day

NOEL KING, HOST:

All right. So we made it. It's Friday. We can finally go home. And - ah, let's let Rihanna say it.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CHEERS (DRINK TO THAT)")

RIHANNA: (Singing) Cheers to the freaking weekend. I drink to that, yeah, yeah.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Yeah. But today is not your normal Friday. It is the first Friday in August, which means it's International Beer Day.

KING: Jesse Avshalomov and his friends are credited with coming up with International Beer Day. So we called him up, and we asked him about it.

JESSE AVSHALOMOV: Part of the way it grew from there was reaching out to bars - say, what are you doing for International Beer Day this year? The ones who were honest would say things like - well, what's International Beer Day? Tell me about that. And the ones who played it cool would say something like - oh, well, you know, we're still figuring that out. What's the date on that again? Remind me.

MARTIN: But what started out as a small holiday celebrated by local bars quickly grew.

AVSHALOMOV: This is everywhere now. This is, like, not even just our thing. This belongs to the world. Somehow, this got to the point where the world really is uniting in celebration of beer.

KING: Avshalomov estimates it's celebrated in almost a thousand cities and more than a hundred countries.

AVSHALOMOV: Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg...

MARTIN: And that is just a taste.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE BEER SONG")

JAMEY JOHNSON: (Singing) Well, I believe I'll have me a beer. 'Cause it ain't sold in heaven, you got to buy it right here. And you can't take it with you whenever you go. So I believe I'll drink all I can hold. Hey, that woman just tore me in two. She's just one more reason... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.