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13 April: what is being celebrated today
There are days when the calendar seems to speak in three registers at once: that of the intimate gesture, that of health calling for attention and that of shared culture. 13 April brings those layers together as if they were a single scene: a kiss that names what is human, a little-known disease that needs light and a board of letters where chance becomes language. In the end, it all points to the same thing: looking after ourselves, looking at one another and finding words for what we feel.
International Kissing Day
13 April marks International Kissing Day, born as a tribute to an unusual record: the longest kiss on record, which took place in Thailand during a Valentine’s Day celebration. The figure — hours sustained against fatigue — has something of a spectacle about it, but also a true intuition: kissing is not a minor detail, but a way of being in the world with another person.
The history of kissing is ancient and shifting. Its traces appear in the East, in Indian reliefs and in texts such as the Kamasutra, where kissing was already a language in its own right. Over time it travelled, changed meaning, became a greeting, a pact, a rite, desire; in some eras it was censored and in others it became an emblem of emotional freedom.
And there is also its chemistry: kissing as a biological and emotional bridge, capable of strengthening bonds and easing tensions. Perhaps that is why we remember it so much: because sometimes a kiss says what no phrase can quite say, and sustains — without promising it — a brief form of comfort.
Sarcoidosis Awareness Day
13 April is also dedicated to awareness of sarcoidosis, a chronic inflammatory disease that can affect several organs, especially the lungs and lymph nodes. It is one of those medical realities that, because they are uncommon, easily remain outside the public radar: they are not always seen, not always understood, but they shape lives.
Its symptoms can be confused with those of other conditions — cough, fatigue, shortness of breath, fever, joint pain or skin rashes — and diagnosis usually requires a complex process: imaging tests, analyses, lung function tests, sometimes biopsies. That clinical uncertainty often becomes personal uncertainty.
That is why the date matters: to make it visible, offer support and remember that research and social support should not depend on how “popular” a disease is. Naming it is a first step: attention begins when something stops being invisible.
World Scrabble Day
13 April also celebrates World Scrabble Day, a classic that turned letters into a game and the game into conversation. Born in the United States in 1931, during the Great Depression, and mass-marketed from 1948, Scrabble eventually crossed borders to reach more than a hundred countries and dozens of languages.
Its charm lies in the perfect blend of strategy and chance: seven tiles in the hand, a board asking for crossings and a mind looking for meaning. In every game, words cease to be merely a tool for communicating and become material for building: they are negotiated, risked, defended.
Perhaps that is why it remains alive: because it is not only about winning points, but about listening to other people’s inner dictionary. In a world of fast screens, Scrabble proposes a happy slowness: thinking, weaving, trying, laughing at mistakes and celebrating, if only for a moment, the shared power of language.