What does a 1,500-year-old religious scholar from Spain have to do with the Internet? More than you might think!
Patron saints come from the Catholic Church, but some of them also manage to grow into important parts of popular culture – not necessarily in a religious way. St. Patrick and St. Nicholas are two examples of religious holidays that are also popular among people of varying beliefs around the world.
But, what about St. Isidore? Do you celebrate him and his day?
You should! If you’re reading this, you’re already a fan.
St. Isidore’s Day
St. Isidore is the patron saint of the Internet, as well as all those people the web relies on: computer scientists, engineers, and programmers. Pretty impressive for a guy that was born in 560 AD!
Like all saints, there is a special day in his honor. It’s held on April 4th, and we at NNG decided to raise awareness to that – and celebrate it!
Who is St. Isidore?
To understand what the day is, you first need to know about the guy himself.
Isidore of Seville was a scholar and member of the Catholic Church in 7th century Spain. One of his most notable contributions to the world was his Etymologiae – an attempt to collect all knowledge into a series of 20 books. This was an important piece of reference material for centuries, and it successfully preserved a lot ancient knowledge that may otherwise have been lost.
In other words, his books were the place everyone turned to when they needed to learn something or settle a disagreement with their friends. Sound like anything else you know?
Because of his work, it’s easy to see why he was chosen as the patron saint of the Internet.
St. Isidore’s Day Traditions
There aren’t yet any traditions set in tablets or hard drives for St. Isidore’s Day, but we’ve decided on a few to get started. Feel free to try these in your life, too.
Wear blue! The most common color on the Internet is blue, so it’s a good way to show your appreciation for the virtual world, in the real world.
Take care of your devices and data. Your technology does so much for you throughout the year, so take some time cleaning your devices and doing other minor maintenance.
Clean your desk. Just like your devices, you spend a lot of time at your desk. Think of this as getting a fresh start.
Organize your folder structure. Have you saved some things where you shouldn’t have, but are always putting off fixing them up? It’s okay, it happens to us all. Let’s make a group effort to clean up our folders.
Do some bug fixes. As a programmer, there are likely plenty of little bugs that bug you every day, but just never seem big enough to need to be fixed. A little bit of effort can get rid of some frustrations for the rest of the year. Become the digital exterminator.
Take part in a gadget museum. Just like St. Isidore preserved history, you can help preserve the history of technology. Dust off all those old gadgets you have at home, and set up a temporary gadget museum with your friends.
Spread the news! This is a fun day that we can all take part in, but most people don’t even know about it. Tell your friends, and it’ll be even better next year.
It’s in Our Culture
Choosing to have St. Isidore’s Day on April 4th wasn’t an invention of NNG, but we want to do our best to make it a fun day worth celebrating.
We set out to create a new, fun tradition, and to educate programmers about the importance of self-development, as well as passion towards our profession. We invite all programmers, developers, and everyone else working in the IT industry to spread the word, and to take a brief pause in the everyday hassle of projects, deadlines, and bugs to rediscover the beauty of their profession without forgetting to stay forever curious.
