Twelve years after International Talk Like a Pirate Day pioneers Mark Summers and John Baur created the now-popular holiday, author Billy MacDougall has answered with a pirate holiday of his own. September 20, 2007 marks the first annual Walk Like a Pirate Day, which celebrates the pirate lifestyle by encouraging participants to creatively emulate pirate behavior.

On the holiday’s web site MacDougall explains, “While Talk Like a Pirate Day is as much fun as firing at a merchant vessel, at some point you have to stop talking the talk, and walk the walk.” According to the site, walking the walk includes everything from pretending you have a peg leg to eating pirate meals and behaving like a pirate at sporting events. The Walk Like a Pirate Day site is filled with comical suggestions for capturing the pirate spirit not just on September 20th, but every day.

The amusing, tongue-in-cheek nature of the holiday is in keeping with MacDougall’s style. His humorous book for parents, The Butcher MacDougall’s Guide to Pirate Parenting: Why you should raise your kids as pirates and 101 tips on how to do it, offers parents such helpful advice as “how to remove chewing gum or a giant octopus from your child’s hair.” An excerpt of the book is available on its web site.

Sources:
Walk Like a Pirate Day
Pirate Parenting

Dina Ely is a journalist, poet, and author of short fiction. Readers can contact her at dely723@yahoo.com