Gearing up for Palindrome Week in April 2024: Fun Facts and More!

Mark your calendars, friends!

Photo by Windows on Unsplash

First, you may wonder what a palindrome is. Second, why are they so interesting?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a palindrome is

a word, verse, or sentence (such as “Able was I ere I saw Elba”) or a number (such as 1881) that reads the same backward or forward

One of the first palindromes I learned as a kid was racecar, which is spelled the same, both forwards and backward. In numbers, a palindrome would be 12321. So when we look at dates, we are looking for numbers that would be the same in both directions.

Some fun facts about palindromes!

1. The word palindrome has Greek roots. “Palin” means again, and “dromos” means way or direction.
2. Have you ever heard of the word “tattarrattat”? I hadn’t until I started researching for this article. It is the longest palindrome, originally written by James Joyce in the novel, “Ulysses” from 1922. It is a word meant to demonstrate the sound of knocking on a door.
3. Palindromic dates are rare and celebrated widely! “Depending on date formats, palindromic dates can be rare. Aziz S. Inan, an electrical engineering professor at the University…