science

Mountain Day

Mountain Day is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mountain Day rather than just read about it. In short: Mountain Day refers to three different and unrelated events: (1) Mountain Day, a student celebration in some colleges in the United States in which classes are cancelled without prior notice, and the student body heads to the mountains or a park, (2) International Mountain Day, held each year on 11 December, which was established by the UN General Assembly in 2003 to encourage sustainable development in mountains, a…

Key takeaways

Mountain Day belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mountain Day to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mountain Day from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mountain Day refers to three different and unrelated events: (1) Mountain Day, a student celebration in some colleges in the United States in which classes are cancelled without prior notice, and the student body heads to the mountains or a park, (2) International Mountain Day, held each year on 11 December, which was established by the UN General Assembly in 2003 to encourage sustainable development in mountains, and (3) Mountain Day, a national holiday in Japan as of 2016.

United States Mountain Day dates back to at least 1838, when the students of Mount Holyoke College headed off to Mount Holyoke. Smith College declared its Mountain Day in 1877. Juniata College established its Mountain Day in 1896, and Williams College students have been climbing Mount Greylock, the highest mountain in Massachusetts, to celebrate Mountain Day since the 1800s. Colby-Sawyer College's Mountain Day is stated to have started in the 1850s, although the first account of it in the student newspaper is not listed until June 1893. Elmira College instituted Mountain Day in 1918. Hollins University has a similar tradition called Tinker Day on which people don costumes and hike Tinker Mountain.

International (UN) December 11, "International Mountain Day", was designated by the United Nations General Assembly in 2003. The General Assembly "encouraged the international community to organize events at all levels on that day to highlight the importance of sustainable mountain development." International Mountain Day is observed every year with a different theme relevant to sustainable mountain development. FAO is the U.N. organization mandated to lead observance of International Mountain Day. The theme for International Mountain Day 2010 was "Mountain minorities and indigenous peoples." It aims to raise awareness about indigenous peoples and minorities who live in mountain environments and the relevance of their cultural heritage, traditions and customs. On International Mountain Day 2018, Josué Lorca, president of Venezuela’s National Parks Institute, traveled to the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Mérida, to announce measures intended to lengthen the life of Venezuela's last remaining glacier. The theme for International Mountain Day 2025, “Glaciers matter for water, food and livelihoods in mountains and beyond”, signaled increasing concern about the melting of glaciers across the world, also reflected in the declaration of 2025 as the International Year of Glaciers' Preservation.

Japan In May 2014, it was announced that Mountain Day will be celebrated as a public holiday every August 11, beginning in 2016. Supporters of the holiday included legislators Seishiro Eto and the Japanese Alpine Club. The legislation states that the holiday is to provide "opportunities to get familiar with mountains and appreciate blessings from mountains." As special arrangement for the 2020 Summer Olympics, the 2020 date for Mountain Day was moved to August 10. With the Olympics and Paralympics postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government left this change in place for 2020 and passed an amendment to the Olympic and Paralympic Special Measures Act to make a corresponding change to the holiday in 2021, moving it to August 9.

Other

Armenia In connection with the UN's International Mountain Day, Armenia has dedicated 9 October as "Day of the Mountains."

See also International Mountain Rescue Day Outfly, Wartburg College fall holiday Leaf peeping

References

External links International Mountain Day, 11 December, official UN page International Mountain Day 2010

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mountain Day

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mountain Day claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mountain Day before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mountain Day ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mountain Day

In research: Mountain Day appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mountain Day in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mountain Day is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2016 establishments in Japan, August observances, December observances, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mountain Day outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mountain Day in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mountain Day means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mountain Day out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mountain Day in simple terms?

Why does Mountain Day matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mountain Day?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mountain Day.