IT’S MARCH 14…no matter how you slice it!

Aaah…the significance of March.

For most years, it marks the halfway point of the semester, along with a celebration of the traditional college “Spring Break.”  March 20 is Fred Rogers (Mister Rogers) birthday.  The 21^st is the first day of spring.  St. Patrick’s Day and the “wearin’ of the green” is somewhere in between on March 17.

So many days to celebrate…so little time, it seems

But, what about March 14? Is that date marked on the calendar?  If not, it should be.

It’s “Pi Day”…or, as it has become known, “Pie Day,” for a play on words.

Pi is the ratio of the circumference of any circle to the diameter of that circle, which was first calculated by the ancient mathematician, Archimedes of Syracuse, somewhere around 250 B.C.  The number’s long line of decimal points gets shortened to 3.14, or, what mathematicians call “pi.”

Thus, the obvious reasons that every year, on March 14, it is National Pi Day. Yes, it is a national holiday, deemed so by the U.S. Congress in 2009.  That was 21 years after Pi Day was originally created by an American physicist in San Francisco when he and his co-workers self-proclaimed the first “Pi” (spelled P-I) Day by eating…”pie” (spelled P-I-E.)

The rest, it appears, is history.

So, mark those calendars from here on in, somewhere between future spring breaks and the celebration of St. Patrick’s Day and the wonderful remembrances of Mister Rogers and his neighborhood.  Whether it is a “pizza” pie or a marshmallow Moon Pie, straight out of the box it is sold in, or if someone is adventurous and grabs some frozen Pillsbury dough shells and adds some fresh fruit and a 350 degree oven, or if anyone ventures into a bakery or the baked goods section of a local grocery story.  Or even if there is a stop at a local pizza shop for a traditional “pie” or a slice to go. Take a moment to stop and have a “slice” and celebrate.

Happy Pi (Pie) Day, 2021, everyone!