E Day

e day is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant e, of which the first six digits are 2.71828. The precise date on which it is celebrated is still the subject of some controversy, owing to differences in the first three digits of e depending on whether a truncated (2.71, i.e. January 27) or rounded (2.72, i.e. February 27) approach is taken.

History

The first known celebration of e day is believed to have occurred on 27/1/83, thus predating the very first Pi day by over five years. This happened when a group of second-year mathematics undergraduates at the University of Unter Über Schlesswig Holstein decided that they had had enough of calculus and were instead going to get blind drunk on several crates of low-quality, high-strength Weissbier. The resulting rampage through the town is estimated to have caused twenty-four million deutschmarks worth of damage. However, the ringleaders avoided any punishment by pointing out the date and claiming that they were in fact celebrating the transcendental mathematical constant. Despite strong suspicions that this was a complete coincidence, the university and municipal authorities were forced to back down.

There were no further celebrations of e day for several years after this, as mathematical departments in universities throughout the world maintained a state of high alert in case of any repetition of the Unter Über Schlesswig Holstein incident. However, when the first Pi day went off without any apparent problems, a small celebration of e day was allowed in 1990 and has continued thereafter.

Controversy

As soon as the very first officially-sanctioned e day was announced, the potential celebrants immediately split into two camps. One - the Trunkees - maintained that in order to strictly preserve the digits of e, the number should be truncated to 2.71, meaning that the date of the celebration should take place on January 27. However, the Roundheads insisted that this was mathematically illiterate and that e day should in fact occur on February 27. A number of Americans also tried to insist that neither of these was correct as the dates were in day/month order rather than the US standard month/day version, and there was a brief attempt to define what might be meant by either the 71st day of February or perhaps the 1st day of the 27th month. This was soon abandoned.

Generally speaking, this rivalry is good-natured and any protests usually tend to involve a few hardcore Roundheads waving placards at January 27 events and a similar number of Trunkees shouting slogans ("Two Four Six Eight! Euler says you must truncate!") at gatherings on February 27.

Standardisation

On October 12th 2007, the Committee to Understand, Resolve and Standardise E Day was formed in order to establish once and for all which month e day should be celebrated in. However, it has been mired in arguments ever since and there is still no sign of a resolution in sight. It has been argued this has not been a complete waste of time as several important academic papers have been generated on both sides and several PhDs have successfully been defended as a result.

Archie and Pye Day

The latest proposal has been put forward by a group of eminent Vavasorologists, who have proposed that e day and Pi day should be merged together as Archie and Pye Day, to take place on March 14 in order to (a) keep the Pi day people happy and (b) to abandon any idea of consolidating e day. This proposal has, however, been criticised as being nothing more than an attempt to publicise a bunch of indifferent novels by failed author Jonathan Pinnock.