Every year, on March 21, people have the opportunity to celebrate National Fragrance Day. This day was created by fragrance manufacturers in the 1980s to help promote fragrance and encourage consumers to increase fragrance sales.

It’s a good day to indulge in many fragrances, regardless of what form they are in. Our olfactory receptors can be pleasantly stimulated by odors in soaps, body lotion, candles, incense, diffusers, or even detergent.

Fragrance has a large impact on humans and our brains. We’re able to detect fragrance through our olfactory receptors in the nose which send a message to the brain that lets us interpret the scent. Scents actually have a large impact on memories. “The brain is an amazing thing, and science finds out more about it every day. Simply put, the olfactory bulb which is responsible for processing all those smells we take in is next to the hippocampus deep inside the brain.  Neuroscientists have discovered that one of the responsibilities of the hippocampus is creating new memories.  With the olfactory bulb and the hippocampus immediately adjacent, research suggests smell and memory are closely related” (national day calendar). It’s the reason why you associate certain smells with certain memories.

Scents and aromas actually play a large role in most people’s life experiences, and celebrating National Fragrance Day can contribute to those memories, so go and have fun at a perfume counter, the candle section of a gift shop or even the cleaning supplies aisle of the grocery store.