No, we're not making this up. It's real, and quite popular.
While many of you may be getting ready for Cinco De Mayo this Saturday, a lesser known holiday is making people take off their clothes, sometimes without the alcohol.
World Naked Gardening Day is celebrating its 14th anniversary this year and naturists and nudists all over the state are firing up their weed whackers to shine a light on a lifestyle that’s rarely seen.
It all started in Seattle in 2005 by a professor and his friend who organized nudist events and were looking for a new project. They settled on gardening in the buff to remind themselves and other of our ties to the natural world.
“It brings awareness to the nudist lifestyle on the heels of Earth Day,” says Kelli McGuffey, a nudist living in Springfield, Tennessee. “It sort of snowballed from a group of like-minded people who like to be surrounded by nature.”
McGuffey took her first foray into the naturist way of living by attending parties thrown by her mentor Marianna Handler in Sewanee, Tennessee.
“I was feeling pretty good about myself around this 86-year-old woman being naked at the top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere,” says McGuffey. “I actually met my husband at one of the parties and we had our first date without clothes. You had to bring your own towel!”
She finds she builds up a bond with her husband when she goes au naturel and it’s a great activity to get away from the kids.
“It’s just like your local clubhouse, except you’re in your birthday suit,” she says. “It is much more inclusive than I thought being a minority woman.”
Gardening seems like a natural progression, no pun intended, for those in the nudist and naturalist community. Participants are encouraged to move toward a healthy sense of both body acceptance and their relation to the natural environment.
“I love to tell people about it,” says McGuffey. “I have pants on now if you’re wondering but, if you’re talking to a nudist, chances are they are naked.”
She has encountered a very diverse group of people all over the southeast who choose to bare it all in a controlled setting. It’s almost like ladies night at your local watering hole, sans clothes.
“Women usually get in free and men are charged $75,” she explains. “Some events I’ve attended are quite affluent, where cabanas cost $4,500. If you want to live naked, it will cost you. It also keeps out the weirdoes.”
But the World Gardening Naked Day Movement just wants people to strip down and make the world’s gardens healthier and more attractive. The group has no de facto leader and encourages nudists take part in the day anyway they see fit.
The group also wants to remind people it can be fun, costs no money, runs no unwanted risk, can remind us of our connection to nature and does something good for the environment.
“If you want to try it, try it,” says McGuffey. “Just be open minded; there’s no harm. I just hope it warms up by then.”