Fun Holiday – Puzzle Day

Celebrated every year on January 29, the holiday honors puzzles of all stripes - jigsaws, riddles, science, math, mechanical, and word puzzles, and of course, real life puzzles.

Develops Skills

Puzzles are problems that are difficult to solve or require special skills to resolve. They can take various forms and emphasize different expertise. For example, crosswords, word search, and anagrams put a person's vocabulary and skills with a language to test. Games like Sudoku and Rubik's Cube, on the other hand, test the player's logical thinking and mathematical skills. Jigsaws develop patience and visual skills.

Beneficial to Health

In addition to being entertaining and fun, puzzles have distinct health and social benefits, especially in early childhood. Collaborative puzzles help children learn how to work together while learning other spatial, motor, and problem-solving skills. Studies have shown that doing puzzles can help enhance brain activity in adults. It also increases creativity and concentration, and it improves memory.

Puzzle Day is also known as National Puzzle Day in the United States.

How to Celebrate?

• Host a puzzle party and solve puzzles with family and friends. Send out invites in the form of a crossword, decorate the venue with puzzles and serve a Rubik Cube shaped cake.
• Learn about the history of puzzles and about the science behind creating them.
• Spend the day solving puzzles of all kinds.

Did You Know…

…that the world’s first crossword was published on December 21, 1913 in the Sunday newspaper, New York World? The puzzle was created by journalist Arthur Wayne.