Bramble, a Tamworth pig, runs in snow at Sinnington, northern England
Happy National Pig Day 2012! Reuters

Happy National Pig Day 2012!

National Pig Day is a great day to honor, recognize and give thanks to those cute snout-nosed, curly-tailed farm animals.

Most people are unaware of the high level of intelligence pigs have. They are smart, clever animals with the ability to be trained and learn tricks. In fact, many people keep pigs as pets.

Ellen Stanley, an art teacher from Texas can be credited with creating National Pig in 1972. She wanted to create a day in which people would be thankful to one of her favorite animals.

Today is also Yellow Pig Day, surprisingly enough. It is a day geared to mathematicians around the world, celebrating the number 17. It has been celebrated across college campuses and mathematicians since the 1960s, according to Holiday Insights.

Michael Spivak and David C. Kelly came up with the idea when they were mathematics students at Princeton University in the early 1960s. According to legend, they were discussing properties of the number 17. They somehow arrived on the topic of a yellow pig, a decided to associate the hypothetical animal with the number.

So whether you are celebrating National Pig Day and or Yellow Pig Day, go down to your local zoo and say thank you to those oinky animals!

And, of course, check out these videos of adorable pigs!