diff --git a/changes/ticket29913 b/changes/ticket29913
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..a713b0ccef92726a82eb919bf80c870735080866
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/ticket29913
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+  o Minor bugfixes (python):
+    - Stop assuming that /usr/bin/python3 exists. For scripts that work with
+      python2, use /usr/bin/python. Otherwise, use /usr/bin/env python3.
+      Fixes bug 29913; bugfix on 0.2.5.3-alpha.
diff --git a/scripts/maint/checkIncludes.py b/scripts/maint/checkIncludes.py
index 3afd9bbebe2bcc0d5254fc3bf3971f1837cc1644..ec9350b9b1c68f26858c467623f59c6c8d712b43 100755
--- a/scripts/maint/checkIncludes.py
+++ b/scripts/maint/checkIncludes.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/python3
+#!/usr/bin/python
 # Copyright 2018 The Tor Project, Inc.  See LICENSE file for licensing info.
 
 """This script looks through all the directories for files matching *.c or
diff --git a/scripts/maint/practracker/practracker.py b/scripts/maint/practracker/practracker.py
index 22cb46c7495d7cc483a821854e97025ee09bec04..febb14639dbf0e8d271d956896b5bc661f691cba 100755
--- a/scripts/maint/practracker/practracker.py
+++ b/scripts/maint/practracker/practracker.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/python3
+#!/usr/bin/python
 
 """
 Best-practices tracker for Tor source code.
diff --git a/scripts/maint/rectify_include_paths.py b/scripts/maint/rectify_include_paths.py
index 401fadae6dfb309afb33508c689136e0ba1adb6a..d1a2328ca6e557e0c11a549f4a8bcb82b4c9ee6f 100755
--- a/scripts/maint/rectify_include_paths.py
+++ b/scripts/maint/rectify_include_paths.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/python3
+#!/usr/bin/python
 
 import os
 import os.path
diff --git a/src/config/mmdb-convert.py b/src/config/mmdb-convert.py
index 706a8b03cc05339b2ab0d7086113229ae29f9fcd..b861e9433ece66ef93e1f3be89759496523db8b8 100644
--- a/src/config/mmdb-convert.py
+++ b/src/config/mmdb-convert.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/python3
+#!/usr/bin/python
 
 #   This software has been dedicated to the public domain under the CC0
 #   public domain dedication.
diff --git a/src/test/ope_ref.py b/src/test/ope_ref.py
index f9bd97c54684712248153cc9241a0616eeba1495..b2f7012563ca628a6c9627d970c31b803f198ed2 100644
--- a/src/test/ope_ref.py
+++ b/src/test/ope_ref.py
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/python3
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
 # Copyright 2018-2019, The Tor Project, Inc. See LICENSE for licensing info.
 
 # Reference implementation for our rudimentary OPE code, used to