Yellow Pig's Day
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Yellow Pig's Day (July 17) is a mathematics celebratory day held at some U.S. college campuses and other locations since at least the 1960s, and an inside joke among mathematicians. The day was founded by fellow mathematicians David C. Kelly and Michael Spivak while they were graduate students at Princeton University. Kelly, who has a large collection of yellow pigs, has continued to celebrate the holiday at HCSSiM, the mathematics summer program for high school students he has run since the 1970s. Many attendees of HCSSiM have gone on to become practicing mathematicians, and have encouraged the celebration of the day at their institutions.
The most elaborate celebrations continue at Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics sessions. Every yellow pig in David C. Kelly's collection is said to "get up and jig." The singing of Yellow Pig's Day carols and the presentation of Yellow Pig Cake is traditional. Ultimate frisbee has long been the official sport of Yellow Pig's Day. Gifts containing or consisting of yellow pigs and mathematical knick knacks featuring the manifold properties of 17 are frequently exchanged among friends. On Yellow Pig Day Kelly presents a lecture on the history and properties of the number 17.
At Princeton University students have celebrated it for many decades since the days of Kelly and Spivak. Spivak, now a famous author, has hidden references to yellow pigs in each of his books.
Yellow Pig Day was celebrated during the 1970s at the University of Chicago, and there have been YPD parties in Boston in 2002 and 2003. It has also been celebrated at Canada/USA MathCamp, where staff has included former HCSSiM attendees.
References
- [1] Vincent Lef่vre's 17 and Yellow Pigs page (http://www.vinc17.org/yp17_eng.html)
External links
- Math Camps 2003 description (PDF) (http://www.ams.org/employment/mathcamps.pdf), mentioning Yellow Pig's Day.
- Brad Johnson's Online TV report, 1998 (http://onlinetv.com/bradjohnson3.html)
- Seth Schoen's Vitanuova blog: 2001 (http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/2001-07-17.html)
- Owen Ozier (http://www.abigailvargus.com/owen/20030717.htm), letters from Kenya
- Sara (http://www.yellowpigs.net/index.php?topic=yellowpigs/index)'s Yellow Pig index.