We see a time when you will enjoy a crunchy, sweet treat on National Fortune Cookie Day! Each year on July 20th, Americans celebrate the cookie that is a traditional part of Chinese take-out.
These crisp, folded cookies have a hint of buttery sweetness. Break them open, and you will find a slip of paper tucked inside with a message on it. The phrase will range from profound words of wisdom or tricky riddles to simple bits of common sense. Some fortunes include quotes from famous philosophers.
While these nuggets of enjoyment are most often found at the end of a Chinese meal, they didn’t originate in China. The distinctively folded cookie began in Japan, where elegant desserts and folding techniques are quintessentially Japanese. However, in Japan, the fortune was tucked in the fold on the outside of the cookie. Sometime in the late 1800s, the fortune cookie migrated to the United States and made its transition. During World War II, it exploded in popularity, and Americans have never stopped enjoying them.
HOW TO OBSERVE #FortuneCookieDay
Order some Chinese takeout and indulge in some fortune cookie therapy. But that’s not the only way to celebrate. Of course not!
Each year on National Scrabble Day April 13th recognizes a game played around the world. Originally named Lexiko and then Criss-Cross Words, Alfred Mosher Butts eventually settled on the name Scrabble. The amateur artist and unemployed architect developed the word game in the midst of the depression. Still, it wasn’t until 1948, a final name change and a trademark that Butts finally began to produce the game.
Scrabble is played with two to four players who score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15 x 15 grid.
In the United States, the name Scrabble is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. Scrabble is sold in 121 countries with 29 different language versions. Worldwide, over One hundred and fifty million sets have been sold with sets being found in nearly one-third of American homes.
1984 – Scrabble became a daytime game show on NBC
2004 – Scrabble was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame
Some cities sponsor Scrabble tournaments on the weekend closest to National Scrabble Day
The word “scrabble” means to “grope frantically.”
NATIONAL SCRABBLE DAY HISTORY
National Scrabble Day commemorates the birth of Alfred Mosher Butts, born on April 13, 1899. However, our research had not identified the founder of the day.
Call your friends and play a game or two of Scrabble! Mix it up, too. There are several ways to play the game if you want to change things up a bit. For example, if you’re spending time alone, Scrabble solitaire challenges you at your own game of words. Another version allows players to only play nouns but they earn bonus points for playing nouns that are both a proper noun and an approved Scrabble word.
Once you’ve played a game, take the final board and create a crossword puzzle using this template. Develop hints to the words and see if others can solve the puzzle.
Do you have fun alternative ways of playing the game? Use #NationalScrabbleDay to post on social media.
On March 29, National Nevada Day ushers The Battle Born State. Joining West Virginia as the only other state to be granted statehood during the Civil War, Nevada is a study in contrasts.
The mostly desert landscape is nearly devoid of trees. With vast open spaces, dramatic gorges, majestic mountains and windswept rock formations, the state transforms quickly.
Nevada may have once been the loneliest state and is home to the loneliest highway. After the Comstock Lode discovery of silver in 1859, the population grew dramatically. By 1864 when the state was admitted to the union, Nevada lacked the 60,000 to be granted statehood and didn’t gain the residents until 1880. It would even lose population according to the U.S. Census Bureau and not achieve the qualifying numbers again until 1910.
Lonely or not, Nevada was the first state to vote for the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery. Nevada wasn’t lonely for long. The population exploded when two railroads connected in 1905 and established a town called Las Vegas and first platted in 1910. It would be 30 years before the first resort would open. Casinos and glamour would soon follow.
As the casinos began to sprout, construction of Hoover Dam began. Formerly named Boulder Dam, the dam on the Colorado River provides hydropower to Nevada, Arizona, and California.
Most of the state is made up of National Parks providing some of the best opportunities for star-gazing anywhere. Perhaps that’s why Area 51 attracts so much attention and mystery. Well, who are we kidding?
Bingo’s Birthday Month is an annual designation observed in December. You know the game that you probably loved playing with your grandparents and other family members growing up? Well, now’s its birthday Month! (Wouldn’t it be nice if we all got to celebrate our birthdays all month? Maybe we should start.) Play Bingo with friends and family at holiday parties to get everyone involved in the game that will bring you back to your childhood days.
Bingo is a popular game of chance often played for cash or prizes. The players are given a “bingo card” with a pattern of random numbers and one player reads out a series of randomly drawn numbers. The object is to be the first to complete a specific pattern (such as “five in a row”). The winner calls out “Bingo!” and collects their prize.
The game began in Italy in 1530 as “LoGiuoco del Lotto D’Italia,” and is still played there today, almost every Saturday. The French adopted the game in the 1770s as “Le Lotto.” Germany put an academic spin on the pastime a century later turning it into an educational game for children, tying in lessons on various subjects.
Bingo arrived in North America in 1929, where it was first called “beano.” Edwin Lowe, a New York salesman, modernized the game by hiring mathematician Carl Leffler, who developed thousands of combinations of numbered game cards. Lowe reportedly changed the name to “Bingo” when a winner shouted the word one day by mistake.
A Catholic priest approached Lowe in the thirties about using Bingo as a church fundraiser, thus kicking off the decades-long association of the game with the American Catholic community. The game is also popular in casinos, though casino Bingo has declined in many areas due to rising taxes, smoking bans, and the rise of online gaming.
And here’s a fun fact for you: Edwin Lowe, the man who modernized Bingo, also invented Yahtzee!
Play a game or two of Bingo and use #BingosBirthdayMonth to post on social media. Dig out your old game of Bingo, go buy a new one, or even make one at home! Get posting so others are inspired to play, too.
