Illustration by Sean Rogers
Across the calendar, you can find a plethora of “unofficial” holidays such as National Fettuccine Alfredo Day (Feb. 7), Star Wars Day (May 4th), or Mario Day (March 10), but only one takes the cake, or should I say pie? That’s right, Pi Day is one of the greatest holidays you can find on the calendar.
I know Pi Day detractors are making arguments like, “I hate math,” or “it has nothing to do with pie.” However, the homophonous pronunciation means that the holiday can be about celebrating either the mathematical aspect, the tasty treat, or both.
Some appreciate the complex and multifaceted world of mathematics while others despise its rigidity and heaps of formulas and theorems. Nonetheless, mathematically, pi is a fascinating number. Who doesn’t love to recite its infinite arrangement of digits? The decimals go on forever just to describe a circle’s circumference-diameter ratio as precisely as possible.
Pi helps us understand circles and their properties. Pies are also circles and happen to be another essential component of celebrating the full breadth of Pi Day.
If you hate the mathematical aspect of the holiday, you should be able to at least enjoy the deliciousness that pies offer. Pi Day is a wonderful excuse to treat yourself to pie, and you don’t have to love math to love a good slice of pie.
Anything can be a pie. Ben Wyatt from “Parks and Recreation” gives us a perfectly versatile definition: “Crust on the bottom, filling, crust on top.” What counts as crust or filling is up to you as the dedicated Pi Day devotee that you are.
Whether you love math and hate pie, or vice versa, Pi Day presents you with both math and pie. A strange combination, but both are beautiful in their own ways.
Jack Butler is from Duluth, Minn.
His major is sociology/anthropology.
