Buffet table. Andrea Egger / Pixabay.com / 2010 / CC0 1.0
What’s happening when and where in the world of food: a calendar of 700 special food-related days. Celebrate these food holidays with suggested activities and recipes, learn about the history, literature and lore behind these delicious days and explore the links for further learning! Many of the food calendar days also contain additional links to resource kits.
See also: Food Holidays: Where Are They All Coming From?
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| April | August | December |
The 1st of June is "Gawai Dayak", a thanksgiving and harvest festival in Malaysia and Indonesia. It marks the end of the rice harvest.
The 1st of June is World Milk Day. The day highlights dairy milk as a global food, and focusses on the global milk industry that produces it.
The Duck Feast is held every year on the 1st of June at the Cat Inn, in the village of Charlton, Wiltshire.
The 2nd of June is Italian Republic Day. The day is marked with parades, ceremonies, concerts, soccer games, and eating everywhere.
The 3rd of June is Egg Day. The challenge for today is to make a meal around eggs. Breakfast if you want, but higher points are awarded to those who make eggs the main course for dinner!
The 3rd of June is World Cider Day. The day is designed to promote production and consumption of apple cider, and involve everyone from apple growers to brewers to retailers to consumers.
The first Friday in June is BeaverTails Pastry Day. A BeaverTail pastry® is a large, flat, sweetened pastry that is deep-fried, then garnished with various toppings, either simply with sugar, or more elaborate choices.
Doughnut Day is the first Friday in June each year. Many people avoid doughnuts on a regular basis, but today might be a good day to treat yourself.
The first Friday in June is Fish and Chip Day. As promoters of the day like to note, it always falls on a Fryday! Treat yourself to fish and chips today!
The 4th of June is Cheese Day. Cheese is great on its own, and as an ingredient in or on or — heck, even under! — dishes. What's your favourite three cheeses?
Shavuot is a Jewish harvest festival. It marks when the first harvests of wheat and fruit were brought to the Temple in Jerusalem.
The 5th of June is Gingerbread Day. Gingerbread is perhaps more traditional at Christmas or during the winter, when the warming effects of the spicy ginger might be most appreciated.
The 6th of June is the National Day of Sweden. As a new holiday, it is a relatively low-key day. Swedes instead still prefer to celebrate the traditional Midsummer's Night just a few weeks away.
The 7th of June is Chocolate Ice Cream Day. This is a day to celebrate two great things at the same time, both chocolate and ice cream. How sweet it is!
The 7th of June is World Food Safety Day. Globally, foodborne diseases annually cause an estimated 600 million illnesses and 420,000 premature deaths. 30% of those deaths are children.
Medard of Noyon is the Patron Saint of brewers and good harvests. Farm workers would be grateful for any help they could get in an era when rain at the wrong time could ruin vital food for the coming winter.
On this day, 8th June, in 1784, a boy named Marie-Antoine Carême was born. He would become the world's first celebrity chef, and codify French cooking in a way that still serves as a foundation today for European cooking.
The 9th of June is Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Day. It celebrates two of summer's earliest fruits, even though one is actually a vegetable!
The 9th of June is St Columba's Day. Among St Columba's food dealings were changing water into wine, causing water to come out of a rock, making a herd of cows increase miraculously, and exorcising a demon from a pail of milk.
The 10th of June is Iced Tea Day. The day arrives right on time for the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, because it is the perfect drink for hot weather.
The 10th of June is Herbs & Spices Day. Herbs and spices add flavour and colour, and perk up people's interest in their food.
The second Saturday of June is World Gin Day. It has been designated as a day to celebrate and enjoy gin. Its refreshing floral notes are perfect for a summer weekend.
The 11th of June is German Chocolate Cake Day: a day to celebrate this delicious cake with a gooey topping of coconut and pecan.
The 12th of June is International Falafel Day, a day to celebrate that wonderful street food that is crunchy on the outside, soft, savoury, warm and spicy on the inside.
The 12th of June is Philippines Independence Day. Throughout the country, there is street dancing in traditional costumes and street food everywhere.
The 13th of June is Kitchen Klutzes Day. This is a day dedicated to those with the best of intentions in the kitchen, but for whom it just doesn't always work out.
The 13th of June is Lobster Day. Lobster is now available year round, even frozen, so wherever you are you can plan a lobster feast in June with confidence that you'll at least be able to have the main guest attending, in some form.
The 14th of June is Bourbon Day. Not only is bourbon a delicious beverage, but it also makes for a delicious ingredient in many dishes!
The 15th of June is Beer Day Britain. Grab a beer from the British Isles to wet your whistle, so you'll be ready to sing the Beer Day Britain song at 7 p.m.!
The 16th of June is Fudge Day. Treat yourself today to fudge in some form: either straight up, or in fudge cookies or fudge cake, or as a hot fudge sauce on ice cream.
No excuses for anyone not having veggies today! Every year on the 17th of June is Eat Your Vegetables Day.
The 18th of June is International Picnic Day. When's the last time you had a picnic? If you can't remember, then maybe it's been too long. Round up some friends and / or family, and make an occasion of it.
The 18th of June is Sustainable Gastronomy Day. It promotes both sustainable and enjoyable eating.
The 19th of June is Martini Day. Can't think of anything to celebrate with a Martini? Have one or two and something might come to mind...
Father's Day is observed on the third Sunday of June. It is a day to honour fathers on, and is observed in many countries around the world.
The 20th of June is Ice Cream Soda Day. An ice cream soda is one of the all-time greatest summer drinks. It combines together some of everyone's favourites, fizzy soda, sweet syrup, and ice cream.
"Why, this is very midsummer madness." — Still celebrated traditionally on the 24th of June, Midsummer Night now actually occurs on the 21st of June. It was a very important pagan holiday.
The 22nd of June is Chocolate Eclair Day. To really celebrate today, you could have one at breakfast, one at lunch and one at dinner!
The 22nd of June is Onion Ring Day. Who doesn't like onion rings: crunchy and moist, both sweet and savoury at the same time! Do you have a favourite place that you go to for onion rings that does them better than anyone else?
The 23rd of June is the National Day of Luxembourg. The centre of Luxembourg City becomes one big outdoor party zone for nearly 48 hours, with lots of street food and bars, and outdoor dancing all through the night.
The 24th of June, St-Jean-Baptiste day, is the national day of Québec, and an official holiday, with everyone getting the day off work.
The 25th of June is Catfish Day, celebrating farm-raised catfish. Many people who don't like fish find that they like farmed catfish because it has a clean, mild, non-fishy taste.
The 26th of June is Chocolate Pudding Day, celebrating the chocolate-flavoured, light-tasting custard known as chocolate pudding in the U.S. and Canada.
The 27th of June is Onion Day. Try to have onions for breakfast, lunch and dinner today! Bonus points if onion is a featured item in a dish!
The 28th of June is Tapioca Day. Tapioca fans, rejoice! A day on which you do not have to be shy about your love of tapioca!
Cakes and Ale Day is a yearly event held in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in south-eastern England. A man named Jenkyn Smith left money for Cakes and Ale to be served.
The 29th of June is St Peter's Day. As far as the food world is concerned, St Peter is the patron saint of fishermen.
On the 30th of June in 1906, American President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law both The Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. The laws were the first step in the government assuming responsibility for assuring the safety of the American food supply.
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| February | June | October |
| March | July | November |
| April | August | December |