World Bee Day
World Bee Day is an annual holiday observed on May 20th to raise awareness about the importance of bees and other pollinators to our planet’s ecosystem. The holiday was first observed in 2018 after the United Nations officially designated it.
The idea for World Bee Day came from Slovenia, where Beekeeper’s Day has been celebrated since 2011. Slovenia is known for its strong beekeeping tradition and has long recognized the importance of bees to its economy and culture. In 2017, Slovenia proposed that the United Nations designate May 20th as World Bee Day, and the proposal was adopted later that year.
World Bee Day aims to raise awareness about bees’ vital role in pollinating crops and maintaining biodiversity. Bees and other pollinators pollinate approximately one-third of global food crops. Without these important insects, many of the foods we rely on, such as fruits, vegetables, and nuts, would not exist.
On World Bee Day, events and activities take place worldwide to celebrate bees and other pollinators and promote their protection and conservation. These events may include educational programs, beekeeping workshops, and public awareness campaigns.
See also: Easy Tips to Create a Thriving Ecosystem in Your Garden.
Overall, World Bee Day is an important holiday highlighting the crucial role bees and other pollinators play in our planet’s ecosystem. By raising awareness about the issue and encouraging people to take action to protect bees and other pollinators, we can help ensure a healthy and sustainable future for ourselves and for generations to come.
How to Celebrate:
- Visit a beekeeper.
- Set up a pollinator farm on your balcony, terrace or garden.
- Use pesticides that do not harm bees.
- Buy honey and other hive products from your nearest local beekeeper.
- Cut grass on meadows only after the nectar-bearing plants have finished blooming.
- Donate to a charity that helps toward bee conservation.
Fun Facts:
- Pollinators, such as bees, birds, and bats, affect 35 percent of the world’s crop production.
- There are over 20 000 species of bees in the world.
- The practice of beekeeping dates back to 4500 years.
- A honey bee will visit 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
- Bees communicate by dancing.
- May is the ideal time to celebrate this day because in the northern hemisphere, the need for pollination is greatest at this time, and in the southern hemisphere, it is a time for harvesting honey and bee products.
#WorldBeeDay
As we are celebrating the National Beach Safety Week/Beach Hazards Awareness Week 2026 through this week to raise public awareness of keeping us safe at beaches, we at CIEDM are glad to learn that another California beach city, Laguna Beach, is implementing the “Umbrellas Only” rules at its waterfronts to avoid large shading installations that block critical views of lifeguards. It is a needed beach management measure for beachgoers safety. As a NWS Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) Ambassador and a SKYWARN Spotter, I’m spreading this USLA post and sharing my comment as part of my support to the Beach Safety Week.
Happy World Bee Day 2026! As registered an local event with FAO for supporting the World Bee Day on May 22, we CIEDM urban beekeepers are taking actions at the Arcadia Ecohome Microforest, a Certified Pollinator Habitat and Certified Bee Friendly Farm. We inspected and recorded bee hives at eaves around the house as part of our citizen science activities, engaged maintenance works to assure an exposed bare ground for ground nesting bees at the Microforest’s Deadwood Garden which is installed with standing dead tree branches and rotting logs for housing cavity-nesting bees, and we also filled up the built “bee hotel” at the Garden with additional plant stems and small dry branches.