What is Ed Balls Day and why are people still celebrating it?

The Twittersphere never forgets

Words by Megan C. Hills

April 28 is a momentuous day in social media history – six years ago to the day, former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls accidentally tweeted his own name from his Twitter account and a holiday was born. Users all over the social media platform have erupted in celebration of Ed Balls Day 2017 and the hashtag #edballsday has been trending all morning.

Ed Balls, who has yet to tweet about his hallowed day this morning, made the mistake while trying to type his own name into the search bar to see what people were saying about him. The tweet quickly spread like wildfire and has since racked up over 89,000 retweets and 56,000 likes at the time of this article’s publication, a number which continues to spike every year. While it isn't going to go down as the best way to use social media, the tweet has brought joy to families far and wide annually.

https://www.twitter.com/edballs/status/63623585020915713?p=p

The former politician has since taken the holiday in stride, even going as far as to bake an Ed Balls Day cake of his own tweet for his wife last year.

https://www.twitter.com/edballs/status/725706293017743362

Thanks to Ed Balls’ stint on Strictly Come Dancing, there’s also been no shortage of tweets featuring gifs of the former politician cutting a rug today.

Happy Ed Balls Day, one and all. May your social media fails be nearly as glorious.

Ed Balls.

Megan is a freelance journalist who covers entertainment and all things lifestyle, with a particular passion for fashion, beauty, travel and Keanu Reeves stories. She has previously worked on staff for titles including Marie Claire UK, CNN Style and The Evening Standard and has written for titles such as Bustle UK, Wallpaper*, Forbes and Hong Kong Tatler. She splits her time between London and her hometown Hong Kong, where she currently lives with the love of her life - an elderly dog named Poppy - and her husband.