Howto Use PHP Include function in header template?

[Quarterbore]

I have come to the conclusion that I can not simply add a php include function in the header of my forum pages (I tried) so I am looking for another solution or advise on how I might make this work.

What I am trying to do is make table that lives in the header of my website that I can incorporate some intellegence into. For example, I could have had it call up a script that checked the date and if it saw today was "Groundhog day" it could have pulled a "Groundhog day" based forum header.

I am guessing (I am still looking at the code) that my issue is in the way that the header is called and it may in itself be inside an "include" function so I guess there way to include an include function :ermm:

It looks to me like the header template is strictly written in html so perhaps what I am trying to do is not possible and before I spend too much time on an impossible task I figured I should ask.

I am also guessing that I could do this in Java but I have enough touble learning php and mysql to try to become a Java man too...