The Feast of Saint Mendeleyev

It has been announced, so let it be done! March 1st is the day.

I am still not sure that Dimitri has actually been canonized, but why let that stop you. According to the Periodic Table of Science Fiction,:

In keeping with the solemnity of the occasion, the Feast of Saint Mendeleyev is a day of fasting and abstinence. Not a chemist anywhere in the world will touch more than a morsel of food or a few sips of water from sunup to sundown. Their mien is somber. They think serious thoughts.

After dark, of course, that all changes. Out come the picnic baskets and wine bottles. Toasts are made, and laughter sparkles to the sky. Then everybody goes outside, and they proceed to blow things up. They're chemists, after all—it's what they do for fun!

Mendeleyev could have predicted it.

Fasting all day doesn't have much appeal, but the drinking and carousing in the evening may make up for it. Unfortunately March 1st falls on a Monday, which will put a bit of a damper on the celebrations.

This is an officially recognized holiday of the Denver Mad Scientists Club, who swear they will have their formerly impressive website back up Any Day Now.