Christmas Dog Parade: Decorate your dog in a festive mood
Hundreds of dogs and their owners dressed up in festive costumes filled the air with holiday cheer at the annual Christmas parade in Evesham, Worcestershire.
Christmas will be special this year, and not just because of the presents under the tree.
This is the first time in a century that the date of Christmas is the same as the last two digits of the Western calendar. That is, if you write a date in month/day/year format (12/25/25), the day and year will be the same.
This also means that most other countries that use the day/month/year format for dates will write this year’s Christmas date with the same first and last digits (25/12/25).
It may not be as cool as a palindrome date, but if you read the dates back and forth and they’re the same, it’s a fun holiday bit for those who like quirky dates.
Palindromic dates are also much more common than this year’s Christmas date format. According to the University of Portland, there are a total of 38 palindromic dates in the month/day/year format in the 21st century. In comparison, 12/25/25 won’t happen for another 100 years.
Why is this year’s Christmas date unique?
Of course, Christmas always falls on December 25th. However, if you include the last two digits of the Western calendar, this year’s Christmas date will be the same day and year: 12/twenty five/twenty five.
This event hasn’t happened in a century, since December 25, 1925. The next time it will happen will be 100 years later, on December 25, 2125.
The date format is more widely recognized as birthday
It turns out that there are actually names for date formats that correspond to the last two digits of the current year, like this year’s Christmas date.
The “golden birthday” is a well-known term for being the same age as the day you were born, but there is also a term that refers to turning the same age as the last two digits of the year you were born.
According to various websites such as The Gallery Collection and Birthday Counts, a “Bedian birthday” is when a person reaches the same age as the last two digits of their birth year. This means that anyone born in 2025 will have a Bedian birthday when they turn 25.
Melina Khan is USA TODAY’s national trends reporter. Contact her at melina.khan@usatoday.com.
