International Bath Day Date in the current year: June 14, 2024

People have washed themselves by immersing in water, i.e. bathing, since ancient times. Evidence of the earliest surviving personal sized bathtub was found in the palace of Knossos on Krete; it dates back to 1700 century BC. Of course, baths have come a long way since then (plumbing is truly one of humanity’s greatest inventions!) and aren’t considered a luxury anymore.

Today, many people prefer showering to taking baths on a daily basis, since it helps to save time and water. For them, occasional baths are less about getting clean and more about treating themselves. A bath with fragrant salts or essential oils helps to relax after a long and frustrating day and clear the mind, relieves sore muscles, helps to sleep better or feel more awake (depending on the essential oils you use), soothes irritated skin, and has other health benefits.

It is unclear who exactly came up with the idea of celebrating International Bath Day, but the holiday was registered at National Day Calendar in 2016 and has been observed annually ever since. It is celebrated on June 14 because it was allegedly on this day that the Greek scientist, engineer and inventor Archimedes discovered how to measure the volume of irregular objects – with the help of a bath!

According to a story told by the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius, King Hiero II of Syracuse ordered a votive crown made for a temple and supplied a goldsmith with pure gold. Once the crown was made, Hiero suspected that the dishonest goldsmith had substituted silver for some of the gold. He asked Archimedes to determine whether his suspicions were valid without damaging the crown.

Because of Hiero’s condition that the crown is not to be damaged, Archimedes couldn’t melt it down into, say, a cube to calculate its density. He supposedly found the solution to the problem while getting into a bathtub: Archimedes noticed that the level of water rose as he got in, and realized that the amount of water displaced by the crown once submerged would equal its own volume. Legend has it that Archimedes was so excited by his discovery that he jumped out of the bathtub and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked shouting “Eureka!” (“I have found!”).

There is no way knowing if this account is true, and if it is, whether the events it describes indeed happened on June 14, but does that mean that you shouldn’t observe International Bath Day? Of course it doesn’t! You can celebrate this holiday by soaking in a hot bath and enjoying a glass of wine or a good book while doing it, buying yourself new bath treats (essential oils, bath bombs or salts, bubble baths, handcrafted soaps), starting a rubber duck collection, and spreading the word about the holiday on social media with the hashtags #InternationalBathDay and #BathDay.