A little reason to celebrate
International Talk Like a Pirate Day
Fun ยท September 19
A playful day for trading ordinary speech for pirate talk: arr, ahoy, matey and all the gravelly vowels that come with them.
International Talk Like a Pirate Day falls on Sunday, September 19, 2027. That is 327 days away.
Ahoy, matey. On this day people swap their usual way of talking for the rolling, growly speech of a storybook pirate. It is marked in the United States too, in offices, classrooms and kitchens where someone decides that "yes" should really be "aye."
The pirate voice most people reach for comes less from real sailors than from movies, novels and stage shows. It leans on a handful of words. "Ahoy" is a greeting, "matey" is a friend, "aye" means yes, and "arr" covers nearly everything else. Treasure becomes booty, money becomes doubloons, and anyone being difficult is a scallywag or a landlubber. Add a squint and a dropped g at the end of words and the effect is complete.
Most people keep it simple. A coworker answers the phone with "Ahoy." A parent asks the kids to swab the deck, meaning wipe the table. Teachers sometimes slip a few pirate words into a lesson, and friends text each other in full buccaneer. Some go further with an eye patch, a striped shirt or a paper hat folded from yesterday's newspaper.
The nautical words underneath the act are real, and they are handy to know. Port is the left side of a ship when facing forward, starboard is the right, the bow is the front and the stern is the back. Learn those four and your pirate talk suddenly sounds like it has been to sea.
Ways to celebrate
- Greet everyone you meet with a hearty "Ahoy" instead of hello.
- Learn port, starboard, bow and stern, then use them all day.
- Fold a pirate hat from an old newspaper.
- Read a pirate adventure story aloud, voices included.
- Rename your lunch "grub" and your coffee "grog" for the day.
Things for the day
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Dates
| Year | Date |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Saturday, September 19 |
| 2027 | Sunday, September 19 |
| 2028 | Tuesday, September 19 |
| 2029 | Wednesday, September 19 |
| 2030 | Thursday, September 19 |
All national days on September 19
Also on September 19
Categories: Fun days