Celebrate Einstein's Birthday with Pi Day

Three years ago Mimi Omiecinski walked into the Princeton Public Library and said, “Albert Einstein’s birthday is on March 14, what do you do for it?”

It turned out, the day passed with little fanfare, but the library staff was eager to collaborate.

And so Pi Day Princeton, which annually draws thousands to town to celebrate the mathematician’s birthday with a huge birthday weekend, was born.

This year begins with a Geek Freak weekend on Friday, March 9 at 3:14 p.m. and culminates on Einstein’s actual birthday, Wednesday, 3/14.

Anchored at the library, the weekend will include a Pie Eating Contest, a No Sock Hop (Einstein didn't like to wear socks), interactive walking tours of Einstein's favorite Princeton hangouts, pie judging contests, pi recitation contests and, of course, an Einstein look-alike contest.

There will also be trolley tours of Einstein’s neighborhood, a Suzuki Violin Contest for ages 3 to 6 (did you know Einstein played violin?), M-Athlete Challenge for grades 6 through 8, Rubik’s Cube Challenge and Dinky train rides with Einstein. Princeton merchants will join in the fun by pricing items at $3.14, and hosting Einstein-related events.

Einstein lived in Princeton and loved the town for more than 20 years so Pi Day Princeton celebrates his birthday and the genius residents of this Ivy League town. Did you know that Princeton is home to more Nobel Prize Winners than any two square miles on earth?

Pi Day Princeton is the brainchild of two local business owners: Omiecinski of Princeton Tour Company and Joy Chen of JoyCards. 

“Einstein’s birthday used to be mostly geeks behind closed doors having a good time,” Chen said. "Now it’s the biggest birthday party on the planet.”

The event's success it based in large part on local organization including the library, YWCA of Princeton, Arts Council of Princeton and now, for the first time, local sponsors.

“It really is a billboard for how this community collaborates and holds hands, especially when it has an opportunity to be creative and do something for families,” Omiecinski said. “That’s just how Princeton is.”

For these two, organizing Pi Day Princeton is a labor of love with Omiecinski as the extravert or self-described “sizzle” and Chen, the introvert, the quiet storm. Chen, a graphic artist, designed the logo for Pi Day.

The first year for Pi Day Princeton in 2010, the two women had three months to pull the event together.

“We were going to call it a win if we got more than a few friends to show up,” Omiecinski said. Yet when the inaugural Pi Day Princeton launched in the midst of a hurricane that left the library with the only electricity in town, 1,500 people wished Albert Einstein a happy birthday.

The next year, Omiecinski and Chen upped the ante, adding a Flickr account, YouTube videos, an iPhone application and more math and science-related events.

Four thousand people flocked to Pi Day Princeton in 2011. 

Now Omiecinski and Chen, who still mostly organize the event themselves, have added even more events and they dream big when it comes to the future of Pi Day Princeton.

“We have a lot of professors and academics at Princeton University, Princeton Theological Seminary, The Institute for Advanced Study, Westminster Choir College,” Omiecinski said. “These are some of the top scholars alive and luckily they have children, and they’re brilliant.

“You give us 10-20 years and there is no reason why Princeton can’t host the Olympics for Geniuses. We’ve got the all the talent in our backyard,” she said.

And celebrities? They’re welcome too, organizers say.

Musician Quincy Jones and actor Billy Crystal, who share Einstein’s birthday, have an open invitation as lifetime judges of the Einstein lookalike contest (after all, Einstein had a lifetime job at the Institute for Advanced Study).

Television personality Al Roker, sure, he’s invited too, said Omiecinski, who also has high hopes that Beyonce and Jay-Z’s newborn daughter, Blue Ivy, might make her in-person debut at Pi Day Princeton.

Celebrities and fanfare aside, Pi Day Princeton is really about exposing the community to the joys of math and science.  

That includes the woman who launched a science club in her hometown after attending Pi Day Princeton-and the father/daughter team who enter the annual pi recitation contest.

“While other people may think the Bahamas is the place to be (during spring break), there’s a certain caliber of families who think this is the only place to go,” Omiecinski said.