Bathtub Party Day is a holiday celebrated on the 5th of December and is intended to encourage people to enjoy taking a bath every once in a while instead of just jumping in the shower.

While jumping in the shower might be a quick and easy way for a person to get clean at the beginning or end of their day, nothing can replace a nice long soak in a bathtub. It’s an experience that’s relaxing and allows the bather to reflect on the finer things in life.

The History of Bathtub Party Day

Rumor has it that this day was invented by an aromatherapy company known as Wellcat—which isn’t surprising, considering they sell an assortment of aromatherapy blends and bath products. Even though we’re not sure exactly when this holiday was officially created, we believe it was sometime during the beginning of the 21st century.

Facts About Bathtub Party Day

Although the majority of homes in the U.S. are equipped with a bathtub, very few people know anything about them other than that they hold water and are used for bathing. That is quite a shame, considering that bathtubs have a storied history.

Although we’re not going to bore our readers with the entire history of the bathtub, we would like to take a few moments to highlight one of the most popular anecdotes about the bathtub. And this anecdote is how Archimedes discovered displacement.

The Archimedes Principle Was Proven With A Bathtub

One of the most popular anecdotes is that Archimedes invented a method of determining the volume of an object with an irregular shape.

According to the story, a votive crown was made for King Hiero II of Syracuse, who also supplied the gold for the construction of the crown. The king wanted to find out if some silver had been substituted for some of the gold, so he tasked Archimedes with finding out.

Archimedes couldn’t melt down the crown to measure how much gold was used, so he had to come up with a novel approach to the problem. While taking a bath, he noticed that his weight displaced an amount of water equal to his volume.

By taking the mass of the crown and dividing it by the volume of water it displaced in a tub, he was able to discover its density. Since lower-quality metals would have a lower density, they would displace less water. And for anyone wondering, that crown wasn’t pure gold—it was mixed with silver.

How To Celebrate Bathtub Party Day

There’s only one requirement for enjoying this holiday—that a person spends at least a little bit of time in their bathtub. Whether it’s taking a bath before they head off to work, or they enjoy a nice hot bath with some essential oils and a glass of wine, the bathtub has to factor into the day’s activities somehow. Which isn’t a bad way to spend the day, if you think about it.