By the way, I hope everyone's glad that I didn't title this "Rational holiday celebration" or something like that. This is something I think LWers will like, and not directly rationality material.
Newtonmas has the advantage of occupying a rather large schelling point.
Baconmas comes with a crispy and delicious menu!
Newtonmas has the disadvantage that a large number of people are otherwise busy on that day.
Also, celebrating Newtonmas does not interfere destructively with celebrating Baconmas.
I'm not on those forums regularly, so I'd feel like a carpetbagger. If you (or anyone) is on one of those forums and thinks Baconmas is neat, please link it!
Funnily enough, Francis Bacon is also credited by some as the father of empiricism, at least according to his Wikipedia page.
Summary: Sir Francis Bacon's birthday (Jan. 22) is a holiday devoted to the sciences, with a side order of bacon. Check out the website and share the Baconmas cheer with everyone!
What is Baconmas?
For the past few years, I've been celebrating the birthday of Sir Francis Bacon (Jan. 22) as a holiday, hosting parties with both science experiments and bacon dishes. It's been excellent enough that I want to share it with everyone else, so I made a website devoted to Baconmas and I'd like you to check it out (and share it if you like it).
It goes without saying that holidays devoted to the sciences can be a force for good as well as a lot of fun (if you haven't, you should see the writeup of the Solstice Celebration for an awesome example). I thought it would be especially powerful to have a holiday that was (1) explicitly about science, (2) fun to celebrate, with a "hook" like bacon, and (3) positive and open to everyone.
The main "tradition" of Baconmas is simply to try something new with each celebration, and to record how it went. Everything else is just a suggestion. I think it's clear that the Zombie Feynman school of science is a powerful and good meme. Science isn't only about the things that are shiny and fun, but it should be shiny and fun whenever possible. So I'm linking a bunch of fun, easy experiments (that have actual content for both novices and the scientifically literate).
How can I help Baconmas grow?
Are you as excited about Baconmas as I am? Great! There are some things you can do to really help!
P.S. Thanks for all the comments on my advice request post! I made a few key additions based on your input.