National Pig Day 2012 (PHOTO, VIDEO)
Today is National Pig Day; a day to honor and give thanks for all snout-nosed, curly tailed farm animals out there.
Pig lovers everywhere have been celebrating the day, with many recognizing the high intelligence levels of the animal. Despite pigs often being associated with dirt and greed, others are quick to highlight that they are unique and intelligent to the extent they can be trained and learn tricks. Others even choose to keep pigs as pets.
National Pig Day was established in 1972 by Ellen Stanley, an art teacher from Texas, who created the day so that others like her could show appreciation for their favorite animal.
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As well as it being National Pig Day, coincidently the day is also Yellow Pig Day, which is not what you might expect. It is not a day to celebrate yellow pigs, but a day for all the mathematicians. On Yellow Pig Day people across college campuses and mathematicians across the nation randomly celebrate the number 17. The event has been long established, and has been running since the 1960s.
Yellow Pig Day is the brain child of Michael Spivak and David C. Kelly, who were mathematics students at Princeton University in the early 1960s. It is alleged that, as all number-loving mathematicians do, they were discussing the properties of the number 17 one day. The conclusion of their discussions, again rather randomly, was that they would associate a yellow pig with the number.
So which are you celebrating today? Are you a pig lover or a lover of the number 17?
