Celebrate National Scrabble Day Every April 13
Word nerds, April 13 is your day! It’s National Scrabble Day, the day to show off your ability to form real (if arcane) words from whatever letters you’re dealt.
We admit it, we haven’t played Scrabble in years. But it just might be time to resurrect it!
Admit it, you love it too. The “fights” over what’s a real word are almost as fun as the game itself.
The date, April 13, celebrates the birth of the man who invented the game, Alfred M. Butts. But he didn’t call it Scrabble.
We’re not sure who first decided Mr. Butts’ birthday should be celebrated as Scrabble Day. But does it really matter? It’s a fun game, and the day is a great excuse to play.
A Bit of Scrabble History and Trivia
Mr. Butts was born on April 13, 1899 and was an architect. At some point he apparently decided he wanted to create a game combining crossword puzzles and anagrams.
He was unemployed and had some time to kill. He called his first attempt Lexiko. (Why? Who knows!).
In 1938 he changed it a bit and called it Criss-Cross Words (or Criss-crossword, depending on who you ask). That’s the version that eventually became Scrabble. But at first it wasn’t popular, under any name.
In 1948 his friend James Brunot retired and decided to try selling the game. He was the one who came up with the name Scrabble. Then he struggled to drum up interest for a few years.
It wasn’t until a Macy’s executive discovered the game in 1952 that it took off. Once Macy’s began selling it sales went from a few dozen a week to thousands per week.
Over time many Scrabble varieties–including a pocket edition, children’s edition, and deluxe set–were introduced. Today you can also play online, of course. It’s also available in many languages and Braille.
Did you know:
- Mr. Butts cut and lettered the original wood tiles by hand.
- Mrs. Butts was better than her husband at his game.
- In 1984 NBC began airing a game show version of Scrabble
- Scrabble is in the National Toy Hall of Fame. It was inducted in 2004.
- The game has sold more than 150 million sets worldwide. That’s a lot of Scrabble fans!
- The highest scoring word you can make in Scrabble is apparently Oxyphenbutazone, worth 1778 points. (What is Oxyphenbutazone? An old anti-inflammatory drug that hasn’t been available for more than 30 years because it had some pretty serious side effects).
Mr. Butts died April 4, 1993, just short of his 94th birthday.
Scroll down for some ideas on celebrating this fun unofficial holiday.
How to Celebrate (Spellebrate?) National Scrabble Day
Play Scrabble, of course!
If you have an old board game, bring it out from the back of the closet.
If not, you can play online. That includes Scrabble on Facebook.
You might even be able to find a Scrabble tournament. Some cities hold them on a weekend near National Scrabble Day.
If you need to check the point value of a letter, you can find a list of the Scrabble letter values here.
Combine a love of books with a love of Scrabble with this list of book-related words you can play in Scrabble.
Which version of Scrabble will you be playing for National Scrabble Day?
[…] National Scrabble Day: Celebrate Alfred M. Butts’ birthday today with a game or two of Scrabble. Why? Because he invented the game, of course! […]