Pandemonium Day

What the day is

Pandemonium Day is observed on July 14. It encourages disorder: abandon the schedule, do things out of sequence, and let the day be noisier and less planned than usual.

Origin and background

The origin of the observance is not documented, and no founder or sponsoring organization is reliably known.

The word has a precise origin, which is more interesting than the day. John Milton coined Pandaemonium in Paradise Lost, published in 1667, as the name of the capital city the fallen angels build in hell. He assembled it from Greek elements meaning all and demon: the place where all the demons are. Within a century it had slipped into ordinary English to mean uproar, and almost nobody using it now knows they are quoting a seventeenth-century epic poem.

The idea underneath the day has some support. Rigid routine is efficient and also narrowing, and deliberate disruption of it is a recognized technique in creative work, precisely because habit makes people stop noticing their surroundings and their assumptions. Tolerating a degree of disorder is also a reasonable corrective for anyone whose planning has tipped over into control.

The caveat is obvious enough. Chaos is a relief for people with too much order and a burden for people already short of it, and a day that recommends it is aimed squarely at the former.

How to take part

• Rearrange one room. Physical disruption is the easiest kind to actually do.
• Take a different route, order something you never order, and say yes to whatever comes up.
• Let children lead the day, which is the fastest available route to pandemonium.
• Leave one thing unfinished on purpose, if you are the sort of person that bothers.
• Read the passage in Paradise Lost where the word appears. It is a surprisingly architectural description.
• Put it back tomorrow. The day is a break from order, not a replacement for it.