Special or Significant Dates - why are people so interested in them?

So I'm not really one to get too interested in such things and I will explain why a little later, however in light of the recent 11-11-11 passing and the countless threads on it and most every other cyclic date and those prophesised I can't help to ask why are some people so obsessed with these occurrences?

I think humans have worked of a few calendars now, and prior to that it was on seasons, and before that I'm not too sure, so dates we use today to reflect of past happenings and to predict future events, to use exact date/times seems erroneous.

So back to why I'm not so interested, It may be a little simplistic (possibly even ignorant) but with my limited understand of global timekeeping/ calendaring. timezones etc I fail to see how we can stick to any date because of the general time & date recalculations required annually because

- our planet's axis has been effected by earthquakes which effects rotation
- and general slowing down of earths rotation on its axis
- and general slowing down of earths orbit around the sun

So with these recalculations, which I assume are made to make all things line up just the way we need them too with the Gregorian calendar we now adopt, surely this effects the accuracy of any cyclic calendar event past or present?

Furthermore, and this is more of a question, as we continue our cosmic dance through the our galaxy, are we fully aware of how we pass by neighbouring solar systems or stars or whatever maybe out there that these "bodies" may affect our timekeeping / perception of time.... to the point of us not even realising thus throwing out exact date happenings/ predictions further into the wtf bin.

I think this further fuels my belief that dates really are just arbitrary numbers we use to keep track of things.
So I guess I have a couple of questions in there, I hope I have made my point(s) clear.
Would love to hear from some people that actually know a thing or two in this field but of course everyone is welcome to chime in.

PS: I still hate birthdays too. meh.

OSS

Quite right, dates mean nothing other than a measure for those that use that calendar. When you start to think how old the earth is then you start to understand how insignificant we and our calendars really are.

Things that might happen will certainly not adhere to any marker we have put down, we're just so caught up in being the most important thing in the universe.

must be part of that sacred geometry crap some folks believe in.