Curious Events Day

What the day is

Curious Events Day is observed on October 9. It encourages holding or attending an event built around curiosity: a talk, a demonstration, an argument about something unresolved, or an outing to somewhere odd.

Its own origins are undocumented, with no identifiable founder or sponsoring organization, which is a fitting condition for a day about unanswered questions.

Origin and background

Curiosity is better understood than it used to be. Psychologists generally distinguish between a specific kind, the itch to close a particular gap in what you know, and a broader appetite for novelty and exploration. The first is what makes an unfinished crossword clue nag; the second is what makes someone take an unfamiliar street home.

The information-gap account of curiosity holds that interest peaks not when you know nothing about a subject and not when you know a great deal, but when you know just enough to register that something is missing. That is a useful practical finding: complete ignorance is not curious, it is blank. Curiosity requires a foothold.

There is also reasonable evidence that curiosity aids memory. Material learned while in a curious state is retained better, and the effect appears to spill over to incidental information encountered at the same time.

The tradition of the public curiosity event is long. Royal Institution lectures, natural history societies, cabinets of curiosities and the Victorian public demonstration were all built on the assumption that people will turn out to see something explained.

How to take part

• Host something small: three friends, one question, no conclusion required.
• Go to a public lecture, museum talk or observatory open evening.
• Follow one question properly rather than skimming ten. Pick something you have wondered about for years and read until you actually understand it.
• Visit a local museum's odd collection rather than its famous one.
• Let a child ask why five times in a row and answer honestly, including when the honest answer is that you do not know.
• Write down three things you cannot explain about your own work.