Buffet table. Andrea Egger / Pixabay.com / 2010 / CC0 1.0
What’s happening when and where in the world of food: a calendar of special food days.
| January | May | September |
| February | June | October |
| March | July | November |
| April | August | December |
The Duck feast is held every year on the 1st of June at the Cat Inn, in the village of Charlton, Wiltshire.
The challenge for today, National Egg Day 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!
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 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.
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 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 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.
No excuses for anyone not having veggies today! Every year on the 17th of June is Eat Your Vegetables 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 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...
"Why, this is very midsummer madness." -- William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night. Still celebrated traditionally on the 24th of June, Midsummer Night now actually occurs on the 21st of June owing to how the astronomical equinox has shifted forward several days over the centuries. It was a very important pagan holiday.
The 24th of June is the national day of Québec, and an official state holiday there, with everyone getting the day off work. The actual name for today is St-Jean-Baptiste Day (St John the Baptist Day) or Fête Nationale des Québecois (Québec National Celebration).
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 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!