National Pie Day is a celebration of pies that occurs annually in the United States on January 23. It started in the mid-1970s by Boulder, Colorado nuclear engineer, brewer and teacher Charlie Papazian after he declared his own birthday, January 23, to be National Pie Day. Since 1986, National Pie Day is sponsored by the American Pie Council. Notwithstanding any problematic overtones, though, Variety's take on the scene was "What damage [the 1999 film] American Pie did for the pie industry, Labor Day has reversed."