Talk Like a Pirate Day
Ahoy Matey! Talk Like a Pirate Day is an international holiday commemorated every year on September 19. It is a day when everyone should talk exclusively in Pirate lingo, whether you're talking to your friends or ordering a coffee, keep the piratical language alive!
Background
Talk Like a Pirate Day was founded by friends John Baur and Mark Summers. On June 6, 1995, the two were playing a game of racquetball when they started encouraging each other by shouting words of encouragement in pirate slang. They had so much fun playing the game while talking in pirate lingo, that they wanted to share the fun with everyone. So, they set off to create a new national holiday where everyone should talk only in pirate slang.
They set the date as September 19 because it was Summers's ex-wife's birthday, and because there were no other major holidays celebrated on that day. For seven years they celebrated the holiday with only their friends, until 2002, when they came across humourist and columnist David Barry's email. They thought Barry would be the perfect person to spread the word on Talk Like a Pirate Day so they wrote to him about their idea.
Barry loved the idea, and wrote a column about it in the newspaper Miami Herald, and since then, this holiday has spread all over the world.
Summers and Baur declared actor Robert Newton as the patron saint of Talk Like a Pirate Day, as it was his character in Treasure Island that inspired the modern pirate slang.
How to Talk Like a Pirate
In order to be able to talk like a pirate, you need to learn the basics first. Here are a few essentials to know if you want to master the pirate lingo.
- Ahoy! means Hello!
- Avast! can be used when you want to get someone's attention, with a sense of surprise such as "Wow! Check it out!"
- Aye! means yes or "I agree!"
- Arrr! is very versatile, and can mean anything from "yes!" to "I'm happy". It is used for everything really!
How to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate Day
This is an easy one, just challenge yourself to speak like a pirate for the whole day! If you're too embarrassed to do it in public, just throw a party with your friends and family where the only rules are to have fun and talk in pirate lingo!
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