World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD) is an annual international event celebrated on the first Saturday of May by gardeners and non-gardeners alike. WNGD has become a growing annual tradition that celebrates weeding, planting flowers and trimming hedges in the buff.
This year’s naked day of planting is on May 7th, and it is the 12th annual celebration. As the news of this unique celebration spreads, it has left many people wondering, why garden naked?
Well, according to the group who founded WNGD, first of all, it’s fun! Second only to swimming, gardening is at the top of the list of family-friendly activities people are most ready to consider doing nude. Moreover, our culture needs to move toward a healthy sense of both body acceptance and our relation to the natural environment. Gardening naked is not only a simple joy, it reminds us–even if only for those few sunkissed minutes–that we can be honest with who we are as humans and as part of this planet.
WNGD has no political agenda and is not owned by any particular group. It is a loose-knit group of people all over the world who encourage others to garden in the buff as a way of getting back in touch with our humanity and planetary ties.
Caught up in our day to day lives
All too often, we humans get caught up in our day to day lives and forget where we came from and how to live in harmony with the rest of the life on this planet. The results of humans detaching themselves from nature are evident everywhere.
If one feels their ancestral ties to the earth and all of the life on it, one seeks out how to live in harmony with that life rather than exploit or destroy it. What better way to reboot those spiritual bonds with mother earth than to remove your clothing and nurture and interact with plants that provide us with so much beauty and sustenance?
“When you’re out there with a gentle breeze on you, every last hair on your body feels it,” the WNGD site reads. “You feel completely connected with the natural world in a way you just can’t in clothes.”