Mumbai: Indians are avid social media enthusiasts who are always willing to engage in a good game or trend online. Monday is their chance.
May 5 this year is 5/5/25 or what is called Square Root Day. The occasion is celebrated on days when both the day of the month and the month are the square root of the last two digits of the year. This is the only such day in a 20-year span from 4/4/16 to 6/6/36.

There are nine Square Root Days and they fall upon the same nine dates in every century.
The event was devised by Ron Gordon, an American schoolteacher from Redwood City, California, who created the first Square Root Day Sept 9, 1981 (9/9/81). He told TOI by phone last week, “Whenever we innovate such days, we get an overwhelming response from India, particularly Mumbai, as well as the Indian diaspora settled in the US. Analytics reports show that the number of views and hits from India tend to peak on such special occasions.”
In a small step to raise the stakes his website squarerootday.net has devised a contest with two separate prize packets for US and overseas winners, each worth $552.5. “The winners will be those who involve the most people in a Square Root celebration. Entries can include creating the largest square root sign from people, serving root beer in square glasses to the most folks, or cutting many roots into squares (well, cubes) for a square root stew,” laughed Ron.
The professor had earlier issued a call for Trumpet Day on 2/2/22 which also engaged a fair number of Indian netizens as well as artistes. In fact leading musician Louis Banks had lauded his initiative and told TOI he wished that Trumpet Day would become an annual affair.
After TOI wrote a report about Square Root Day ahead of April 4, 2016 (4/4/16), Ron received many entries and photos from Mumbai. This time too, he has invited Indians, particularly Mumbaikars, to join this celebration. “The next Square Root Day will be 6/6/36 and the final Square Root Day of the century will occur on September 9, 2081,” he said. Ron said that his karmic connection with India is so intense, his son Tyler wed an Indian origin girl Pooja Singh recently.