CSS Naked Day

Show off your semantic `<body>`!

April 9 is CSS Naked Day!

Join us for the yearly festivities on April 9 of going nude on the Web!

The idea behind CSS Naked Day is to promote web standards. Plain and simple. This includes proper use of HTML, semantic markup, a good hierarchy structure, and of course, a good old play on words. In the words of 2006, it’s time to show off your <body> for what it really is.

CSS Naked Day editions

2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

How to participate

On April 9, simply remove all CSS from your website, stripping it entirely of its design.

You can link to this page to let your visitors know about the nudity of your website! This option is for those who feel a need to give their visitors a reference as to what’s going on. This is not about getting traffic or making money. There are no ads on this site, nor will there ever be. This is about you, the people; getting naked.

You can instead add your website(s) here by creating an issue or adding a file in the proper folder!

Don’t think, just strip

Here is a sample PHP function for developers:

<?php
function is_naked_day($d) {
  $start = date('U', mktime(-14, 0, 0, 04, $d, date('Y')));
  $end = date('U', mktime(36, 0, 0, 04, $d, date('Y')));
  $z = date('Z') * -1;
  $now = time() + $z;
  if ( $now >= $start && $now <= $end ) {
    return true;
  }
  return false;
}
?>

Use it like this:

<head>
…
<?php
if ( is_naked_day(9) ) {
  echo '<!-- Naked Day has no styles -->';
} else {
  echo '<link rel="stylesheet" href="styles.css" />';
}
?>
…
</head>

Wait… isn’t that 50 hours?

That’s correct. CSS Naked Day lasts for one international day. Technically speaking, it will be April 9 somewhere in the world for 50 hours, from 00:00, April 9 UTC+14:00 to 00:00, April 10 UTC-12:00 (10:00, April 8 UTC+00:00 to 12:00, April 10 UTC+00:00). This is to ensure that everyone’s website will be publicly nude for the entire world to see at any given time during April 9.

Tools and plugins

Attention plugin developers: If you have a CSS Naked Day plugin for a popular CMS, or written in a programming language not listed here, feel free to make a pull request and add it, or to post an email on the dedicated Google group if you’re not familiar with Git.

Aja updated their most excellent WordPress Naked Day Plugin.
Reto has created a Naked Day plugin for the LifeType Blogging platform.
Sasha Gerrand gives us a great Perl subroutine.
Jeff Triplett gives us a nice Django Snippet for you Python folk.
Drupal users, get the module!
If you are game you can use Ben Buchanan’s JavaScript snippet. Works anywhere, removes everything, buyer beware!
If you are a Rails developer, check out the css_naked_day_rails gem by Daniel Sellergren.
If you have lots of raw HTML, use this bash script to remove style sheets, style elements, and inline styles.

Origins

CSS Naked Day started in 2006 by Dustin Diaz, who organized it until 2009. From 2010 until 2014, it was hosted by Taylor Satula. The content in this page is extracted from the content of the respective pages. Since 2015, the project is maintained by Fabien Basmaison and Jens Oliver Meiert.

Famous words

This is a fun idea, fully in line with the reasons for creating CSS in the first place. While most designers are attracted by the extra presentational capabilities, saving HTML from becoming a presentational language was probably a more important motivation for most people who participated in the beginning.

Håkon Wium Lie