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13 May: what is celebrated today
There are dates that seem like an opening whistle: the world gets moving and everything takes on a sense of teamwork. 13 May brings together occupations that sustain life from very different places: the strategy that organises a dressing room, the management that keeps spaces where we work and live together safe, the simple act of sharing food, and organised tenderness around children who spend their days in hospital. And, as a backdrop, two everyday reminders: eat more consciously and move through streets where haste is not worth a life.
World Football Coach Day
World Football Coach Day has been observed on 13 May since 2021, and focuses on a figure who rarely lifts the cup but almost always writes the story. The date was chosen in honour of Sir Alex Ferguson and his final match as a coach, on 13 May 2013: a symbol of competitive patience, long-term vision and leadership that turns a dressing room into a community.
A coach does not merely design a system of play. They turn pressure into clarity, defeat into learning and talent into discipline; they listen, organise, correct and protect. In football — and perhaps in life — their job is to make eleven different life stories breathe to the same rhythm for ninety minutes.
World Facilities Management Day
The second Wednesday in May marks World Facilities Management Day (since 2006), and in 2026 it falls on 13 May. It recognises those who keep everyday infrastructure standing: clean, safe buildings, functioning offices, operational hospitals, usable schools, ready stadiums and systems that do not fail when they are needed most.
Facilities management is a quiet profession: when everything is right, nobody notices it; when something fails, it becomes essential. Its impact is direct on productivity, health and wellbeing. In a world that depends on shared spaces, the day reminds us that modernity is also built through maintenance, prevention and care.
International Hummus Day
13 May also celebrates a humble, universal pleasure: hummus. A chickpea cream with lemon, tahini and olive oil, born in the kitchens of the Middle East and North Africa and adopted by half the planet as a table ritual: bread, conversation, a dish in the middle and the sense that simplicity can be perfect.
Its charm lies in the mix: nourishing, accessible and adaptable. It even has its small contemporary legend — the 2008 “Hummus War” — showing how a dish can become identity. Celebrating it is, at heart, celebrating the right to share.
National Day of Hospitalised Children (Spain)
In Spain, 13 May has been National Day of Hospitalised Children since 2015, a date dedicated to those little brave ones who learn the language of white wards too soon. The day pays tribute to children, their families and healthcare staff, but also to the associations and volunteers who humanise hospital stays with activities, music, visits and games.
The choice of date has a historical echo: on 13 May 1986, the European Parliament approved the Charter of the Rights of Hospitalised Children. Remembering it today means insisting on something basic: even in illness, childhood needs affection, dignity, school, laughter and company.
World Salt Awareness Week
From 12 to 18 May, World Salt Awareness Week has been observed since 2006. It is an invitation to look at the invisible: salt “hidden” in processed foods and ready meals. It is not about dramatising, but about regaining control: reading labels, cooking more at home, using herbs and spices, and calmly educating the palate.
Sometimes health does not require grand gestures, but small repeated decisions. Reducing excess salt is one of those discreet changes that, over time, becomes protection.
United Nations Global Road Safety Week
The United Nations Global Road Safety Week has also taken place from 12 to 18 May since 2014. Its purpose is uncomfortable but urgent: to reduce deaths and injuries from road crashes. It concerns speed, but also urban design, education, enforcement, well-maintained vehicles and rules that are obeyed.
At heart, road safety is an everyday ethic: every crossing, every braking manoeuvre, every decision at the wheel or as a pedestrian can protect — or endanger — someone we do not know. And that “someone” always has a name at home.