Alphabet Magnets, But Which Alphabet?

Modern alphabet of Gurmukhi script
Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. 

There really are national days for just about anything, if you hunt around long enough.  Such as today, which is National Alphabet Magnet Day.  No, really, just check the page here.

See, I told you.  I wouldn't make this up.

But the reason I'm writing about National Alphabet Magnet Day isn't to get you to look at the page for it.  It's to get you thinking about alphabets.  Because I'll bet when you read "National Alphabet Magnet Day", you automatically thought of the alphabet for the English language.

I'm right, aren't I?

But when you think about it, there are other alphabets out there.  So that means there could be alphabet magnets for those alphabets, right?

And there are!

My favorite alphabet magnets that I own are for Gurmukhi, the alphabet used to write the Punjabi language.

What?  You've never heard of Gurmukhi?

Well, I hadn't either.  But when your ex is half-Indian, and his father was Sikh and came from Punjab, somehow you end up learning about it.

And one day I ran across something online for Gurmukhi alphabet magnets.

Of course I had to buy a set.  And then bought a second set for my grandchildren.  They haven't shown any interest in it yet, but one day they might.

Then I started wondering about other alphabet magnets.

My mother's family is Jewish.  My mother never learned Hebrew and learned only a few words and phrases in Yiddish.  But my grandmother was fluent in Yiddish (it was her first language) and knew some Hebrew.  And Hebrew and Yiddish use the same letters (mostly).

So off I went in search of Hebrew alphabet magnets and found some.  You can find all sorts of interesting things on Amazon.  I found Swedish alphabet magnets, Cyrillic alphabet magnets, and more.

I have not yet learned to speak or write in Hebrew, Yiddish, or Punjabi.  But I'm working on it, and when I do, I'll be able to post phrases and sentences on the refrigerator with my handy-dandy alphabet magnets.

One of the suggestions on the National Day Calendar page for how to celebrate the day is to use the letters to teach children the alphabet.  Wouldn't that be a wonderful way to help children learn about their ancestry?

Go do it.  Now.