Food Holidays: Where Are They All Coming From?

Food holidays are now a serious business on social media. Every day of the year now has at least one, if not two, or three, food holidays attached to it.

It’s hard for them to escape your notice. They are omni-present, as your friends hit the share button, copying them onto their feed and into your view.

But where do these national food days come from? There’s no easy answer, as there’s not even a definitive list to these “food holidays”. There’s rarely any way to tell which ones are “authentic”, let alone a definition of “authentic” or any way to track down the source of them and find out who’s behind a given day. Searching on a day such as “Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day” in Google typically brings up a page with the date figuring prominently in the banner results. But, where is Google getting that information from? What if any source is it using? Is it a reputable source you’d trust? ^[1]Some say it’s Foodimentary.com; some say it’s NationalToday.com. But what’s their source?

Some of the days, such as Bavarian Cream Pie Day, are so hyper specific that it can feel as if there is a Monty Pythonesque ‘Ministry of Silly Food Days’ churning these out.

While public relations people in the food industry prefer to call these “lifestyle holidays”, some foodies now tend to use the less genteel term of “fake food holidays” and say that the days, heavily pushed by PR flacks, have become a scourge, causing “fake food holiday fatigue syndrome”. Critical thinkers in the food arena say the days promote unhealthy and environmentally-unsustainable eating patterns, as well as just plain not-very-good food, to boot — out-of-season, styrofoam strawberries, anyone?

These “holidays” aren’t meant to be taken as “real” holidays: “Schools and banks do not close for National Vinegar Day (June 16)” ^[2]Severson, Kim. Having a Snack? Make It a Holiday. New York, NY: The New York Times. 30 May 2007. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/dining/30holi.html and people “don’t get a day off work, let’s put it that way.” ^[3]Nunn, Emily. Make it stop! We surrender to the never-ending glut of silly food ‘holidays’. Chicago, Illinois: The Chicago Tribune. Wednesday, 25 August 2004. Page 7-1, col. 1.

But, as “fake” as they are, these “new [food] holidays [] incorporate two very American traits: self-invention and an excuse to sell products” ^[4]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online. New York, NY: New York Times. 3 August 2015. Section B, Page 1. . For food production, processing, supply and catering industries, they are a powerful and inexpensive tool to gain mindshare amongst the target customer base. When done right, your customers even do your marketing for you.

See also: Roman Holidays

Some traits of food holidays

Holidays throughout history have always involved food as an element of the celebrations or observances (even when it involved abstaining from food, as in Jewish Yom Kippur , Christian Lent, and Roman Ieiunium Cereris). But for all these holidays, food has played a supporting role in aid of a larger raison d’être for the festivities or observances . The Romans had several wine holidays, but the reason — on paper er, parchment, at least — was always to pay thanks to a deity. Modern-day Thanksgiving comes close to being all about the food, but the overarching element of “thankfulness” is still the prime reason (in theory anyway) for the occasion.

With many if not most of the new “fake food holidays”, however, the food item in question itself is the main event: there is no other reason for the day. The food item is, in its own right, being celebrated, feted, glorified and most of all, promoted.

Noting the type of date attached to a food holiday can often give clues about its geographic origins. Ones invented in the United States tend to have fixed dates that never change, while ones of European or English origin often have floating dates, such as Toast Day being the last Thursday of February, with the result being that the actual calendar date is different every year.

One of the prime U.S. inventors of fake food holidays, John-Bryan Hopkins, actually expresses dislike for these floating food day dates, and says that to better please search engines, specific dates are needed:

“I have a problem with food holidays that are always on the second Tuesday of everything. That gets confusing… Food holidays need a specific date in the Googled world.” ^[5] One Person Decides the National Food Holidays. New York, NY: Inverse Magazine. 6 November 2015. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.inverse.com/article/7854-one-person-decides-the-national-food-holidays

Another common trait is that they typically seem as though they have been inspired by white, early middle-aged, North American, male taste buds. And small wonder: that’s pretty much the demographic that has largely been making these up. “Ethnic” foods such as nachos and pizza will appear, but perhaps only because they have been subsumed into the mainstream of North American food. There’s little diversity or representation from other cultures, cuisines or geographic areas (something that CooksInfo is continually working on addressing in its collection of food days.)

Irrationality of the fake food days

Typically, write-ups about a food day will talk about the (usually incorrect) history of the food in question, but rarely (as in next to never) does the write-up even think to question whether the food day itself is actually really a thing, or should be.

To be fair, a few days do promote advocacy for nutrition, food safety, etc., and no one is questioning their legitimacy or utility. And a few (very few) authentic ones do actually commemorate something real historically, such as a person (e.g. Mary Randolph’s Birthday) or a historical event (the end of Prohibition in the U.S.).

The originator of National Beer Day is that rare food holiday creator who felt that the day being created needed to have a legitimate peg:

“My buddy Mike Connolly, who’s not even from the United States, he’s actually from Liverpool, England, said, “Hey, we should start a National Beer Day for America, it deserves to have its own National Beer Day.” Originally I told him it was a horrible idea. There are very few things I despise more than, let’s say someone’s favorite things are balloons, and their birthday is March 23, so they say March 23 is a National Balloon Day. There needs to be some kind of history, something that we’re recognizing here–especially on a federal level. A few months later, I said, “Look, I’ll do some research on the history, and if I can find a date that should be recognized as such, we’ll start a Facebook page or something.” It turns out in 1933, during the Prohibition era, there was a law signed called the Cullen-Harrison Act that allowed the sale of beer up to 4 percent ABV.” ^[6]Hartis, Daniel. Meet the Godfather of National Beer Day. All About Beer Magazine. 7 April 2018. Accessed July 2019 at http://allaboutbeer.com/justin-smith-godfather-national-beer-day/

But the vast majority of fabricated food days have no connection to anything, really, not even the season in which we are invited to observe them. And sometimes, they even conflict with already established ones. Part of the problem with Americans in particular proclaiming made-up food days is that it never occurs to them to look outside their borders to check if other countries are already celebrating that particular food item on a given day. Thus, the “food day” calendar ended up with Yorkshire Pudding Day (US) being slated for October in the United States, where 99% of the population doesn’t even know what a Yorkshire Pudding is, while it was actually already being celebrated in February back in England, which is home to the Yorkshire Pudding (see Yorkshire Pudding Day). And Gin and Tonic Day gets slated by an American for April, without looking out the window to see that the rest of the world was already merrily celebrating it in October (International Gin & Tonic Day).

With so many competing food day creators who don’t stop to check what already exists (or who don’t care) “conflicts are unavoidable. John-Bryan Hopkins [Ed: creator of food days and author of Foodimentary], for instance, counts at least four National Brownie Days.” ^[7]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online. 

Sometimes the date selection and creation is so random that the creators of the days don’t even remember they created it. John-Bryan Hopkins said in a newspaper interview: “I don’t specifically remember creating National Doughnut Day, but when I Google back it’s obvious it points to my site, so somewhere in the past I must have done it.” ^[8] One Person Decides the National Food Holidays.

And, even the so-called “fixed” food dates change. According to The Kansas Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom, in the early 2000s Oatmeal Day was on the 2nd of January. January is the top-selling month for oatmeal in the northern hemisphere — small wonder, with the dead of winter setting in — so the Quaker Oats Company promotes all of January as Oatmeal Month. But now, somehow, someway, for some reason — or maybe no reason — the date has migrated to the 29th of October.

German food writer Sven Giese has tried to apply European logic to figuring out the food days, but decries the irrationality and lack of consistency with them. He seems to point at Americans as the problem:

“Unfortunately, as with so many other American culinary holidays, National Biscuit Day does not seem to have put much effort into documenting its origins. A large part of the popular online calendars honor this special Buttermilk Biscuit Day with their own contributions on May 14th, but these publications do not provide information on a possible initiator or the exact starting year. But that’s a well-known problem with many food holidays in the United States…” ^[9]Giese, Sven. Buttermilk Biscuit Day – National Buttermilk Biscuit Day in the United States. 23 June 2020. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.kuriose-feiertage.de/tag-der-buttermilch-biskuits/

Food holidays and sustainability

Many of the fake food days have two issues that both connect to sustainability:

(1) Promotion of out-of-season foods

Many of the fake food holidays feel as though they were set by people who don’t know when growing seasons are — or perhaps don’t even know what a “growing season” is. They may think that fresh pears are always in season because they walk by them in the grocery store year round. Some food holidays that are wildly out of season feel as though they have simply been plucked out of thin air to fill blanks in calendar squares, whether they made any culinary or seasonal sense for that time of year, or not.

And this may be more than a hunch. John-Bryan Hopkins of Foodimentary fame, one of the more prolific creators of fake food days, is by his own admission not even a cook: “I don’t have a big background with food… I’m not a big cook.” ^[10] One Person Decides the National Food Holidays.

Any cook worth his or her salt wouldn’t promote any out-of-season produce whose very quality and desirability would be impacted by being out-of-season. Strawberries, tomatoes, pears, peaches… many “fresh” out-of-season versions of these are poor imitations of their seasonal versions (in fact, you’re typically better off with frozen or canned with many of these when out-of-season.) Nor would a cook promote out of season dishes: chilled soups are not served in the winter for a reason.

One could argue that what is out of season in the Northern Hemisphere is therefore in season in the Southern Hemisphere, but that doesn’t always work out to be the case, either. December the 6th is Gazpacho Day, and tomatoes are no more in season in Australia at that time than they are in Ohio.

(2) Lack of awareness of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Besides being culinarily dubious, the lack of seasonality shows shocking tone-deafness to the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the UN in 2015.

To name just two examples, the Sustainable Agriculture element of goal # 2, (Zero Hunger), and the Sustainable consumption and production element of Goal # 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production.)

By encouraging out-of-season eating, the fake food holidays act as yet another driver for excessive carbon footprint miles to get that out-of-season food to consumers.

The unsustainability aspect of many of these days feel like they date from an era when gas-guzzling land yachts majestically sailed the highways and recycling was a word no one had heard of.

Not holidays for a small planet

Food holidays for a small planet these are not.

Rarely do the fake food holidays promote food that is in season, which would both help reduce the miles that foods must travel, and help support local farmers.

Sustainability doesn’t appear to be a part of any self-styled review committee’s criteria on the bigger commercialized sites that sell food holiday creation.

The gleeful promoters of National Watermelon Day don’t worry about “how many gallons of water it takes drought-stricken California to grow a single watermelon.” ^[11]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online.

The fake food holidays also weaken sustainable production of food by encouraging a hunt for bargain-basement deals at the expense of food producers. Critics of the days have spoken of “food ‘holidays’ of dubious origin based around the promise of free food…” ^[12]Johnson, Hollis. McDonald’s is giving away free fries. Here’s how to get some. Many of the food holiday promotional write-ups will talk about hunting for coupons, offers, deals, freebies. And to be fair, the food and drink industry now encourages or leverages that food holiday mentality to get us in the door, using a free or discounted food item as a loss leader — but on whose shoulders is the cost of that freebie really borne?

And how does this deep-discount or freebie hunt help the people who grow the food, or cook and serve it, get closer to earning a decent, sustainable wage?

“How does this practice benefit the nation? It doesn’t,” says food writer doyenne Darra Goldstein, using the example of Vodka Day, “except to stimulate sales and, in the case of vodka, give people carte blanche to start drinking before the cocktail hour.” ^[13]Goldstein, Darra. National Turkey Day. Gastronomica Magazine. 3 November 2011. Accessed December 2021 at https://gastronomica.org/2011/11/03/national-turkey-day/

She would rather see days with goals that promoted related sustainability and food accessibility issues:

“Instead of declaring March 23 National Chip and Dip Day, couldn’t that money have been better spent to improve school lunches? If we want to celebrate National Clams on the Half Shell Day on March 31, wouldn’t we be better off enforcing the Clean Water Act, so that clams can thrive and we can eat them safely? Wouldn’t it be better if the national food days reflected genuine civic engagement instead of corporate interests?” ^[14]Goldstein, Darra. National Turkey Day.

Some first-world foodies say that the tone-deafness of some of the fake food holidays mortifies them. They say that in a world of such grotesque food imbalance, where one in seven people will go to bed hungry tonight ^[15]Hunger. Bray, Ireland. DevelopmentEducation.ie. Accessed December 2021 at https://developmenteducation.ie/feature/future/ , the extreme picky specificity of some of the days — Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day, say — only serves to highlight just how much food the first world is overflowing with, that we can be so capriciously captious in our food whims.

The field seems ready for someone to champion an alternative sustainable food holidays calendar. A Sustainable Gastronomy Day has appeared on the timeline, and World Plant Milk Day has already arisen to counter World Milk Day; will there be more challengers?

A consideration for successful creators of alternatives would be the need to bear in mind that both the Internet and our sustainability challenges are global in scope; when you blast out on social media that it’s “Kumquat Day”, that post is seen from New Zealand to Alaska to India, so the food holidays that travel best may be those everyone everywhere can relate to at that time of year.

Food holidays and nutrition

Food holidays are for the most part presented as a way to legitimize the production, sale and consumption of foods we know are not only not good for us, but also downright bad for us. And not only to legitimize but to make the act of consuming them into thrilling fun despite what we know. Many of the days can be “a fantastic way to make a sugar addiction feel like festive fun.” ^[16]McNeilly, Claudia. Why national food days are about not much more than doing it for the ‘gram. Toronto, Canada: National Post. 29 June 2017. Accessed December 2021 at https://nationalpost.com/life/food/why-national-food-days-are-about-not-much-more-than-doing-it-for-the-gram

Some writers argue that many if not most of the “food holidays” give the feeling of turning gluttony and poor nutrition into gastronomy:

“As food culture has propelled calorie-laden cake, milkshakes, and pizzas topped with mini pizza slices, to the forefront of gastronomy, this variety of unapologetic gluttony has become the latest applauded venture to be photographed and shared online.” ^[17]McNeilly, Claudia. Why national food days are about not much more than doing it for the ‘gram.

While it can be easy to say “it’s just harmless fun, and only for one day”, it becomes an issue when the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that are also saying the same thing. No one is saying there’s anything wrong with regular “treats” — we all need treats — but the invitation to normalize treats as regular eating is unhelpful, to say the least:

“National food days offer great excuses to deflect poor dietary choices to external forces outside of our control….Such frivolous consumption might be harmless in small doses, but as nearly every day of the calendar year gets turned into a food holiday, we avoid taking responsibility for the foods that we are already choosing to consume – and the myriad problems that our over-consumption causes.” ^[18]McNeilly, Claudia. Why national food days are about not much more than doing it for the ‘gram.

And in an era where Type 2 diabetes cases are exploding in part owing to weight issues, there’s even a food day, “No Diet Day“, telling people not to worry about weight.

One of the originators of made-up fake food days, John-Bryan Hopkins of the Foodimentary Twitter feed and website, freely admits that the health aspect of a food day promotion is not on the list of things he considers when inventing a day:

“I’m not Mr. Health Food Celebration Day,” he said. (Froot Loop Day is another of his babies.) “I like the foods that America really likes.” ^[19]Tuttle, Brad. Meet the Guy Who Totally Makes Up the Fake Holidays We Celebrate. New York, NY: Time Magazine. 17 June 2014. Accessed December 2021 at https://time.com/2891248/fake-holidays-food-splurge-day-marketing/

Diana M. Chard, a Registered Dietitian in Ontario, Canada, checked out the food days that Mr Hopkins promotes on his website, and writes:

“Based on the food holidays listed on Foodimentary, I added up all of the food holidays, all of the holidays promoting unhealthy choices, and all of the holidays promoting healthy foods. Out of 475 food holidays, 250 were for unhealthy foods (e.g. candy, doughnuts), and 81 were for healthy foods (e.g. kale, almonds). Do we really need all of these days devoted to promoting treats? How about we start a new calendar of food holidays promoting a different whole food every day? We don’t need to encourage anyone to eat ice cream, especially not for breakfast.” ^[20]Chard, Diana M. National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast and other unnecessary food holidays. Blog posting. 11 February 2015. Accessed December 2021 at https://bitemywords.com/2015/02/11/national-eat-ice-cream-for-breakfast-and-other-unnecessary-food-holidays/

Many foodies are surprised that so many of the food holidays out there involve unhealthy fast food that you would go out to buy — as opposed to promoting interesting, healthy foods that cooks might like to make at home. They might not be surprised to learn that Mr Hopkins, who invented many of the days, doesn’t — by his own admission — actually cook: “I don’t have a big background with food… I’m not a big cook.” Food holidays, he feels, “don’t have recipes.” ^[21] One Person Decides the National Food Holidays.

So, which food days actually do promote health and well-being? Leaving aside the few days that can be said to promote food whose healthfulness can depend on preparation such as Bean Day, or Cabbage Day (because then you also get into arguing how to classify things such as Coffee Day or Cheese Day), out of 700 food days that CooksInfo has listed, we have identified seventeen that actively promote health and well-being. These are:

Anniversary of U.S. Food Safety Laws 1906, Better Breakfast Day, Clean out your refrigerator day, Eat Your Vegetables Day, Family & Consumer Sciences Day, Global Handwashing Day, International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, International Plastic Bag Free Day, Rural Health Day, Stop Food Waste Day, Sustainable Gastronomy Day, World Diabetes Day, World Food Day, World Food Safety Day, World Kitchen Garden Day, World Pulses Day, World Water Day

These few have to compete with hundreds and hundreds of other food holidays such as:

Chip and Dip Day, Chocolate Covered Anything Day, Chocolate Milkshake Day, Corndog Day, Drink Wine Day, Eat What You Want Day, Fast Food Day, Fish and Chip Day, French Fried Shrimp Day, French Fries Day, Greasy Foods Day, Hot Dog Day, Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day, Ice Cream Soda Day, Jelly Bean Day, Junk Food Day, Kool-Aid Day, Lollipop Day, Margarita Day, Martini Day, Nugget Day, Pizza Day, Vodka Day

Phil Lempert, Food Trends Editor for NBC’s Today program, feels that supermarkets should find ways to turn some of the unhealthier food holidays around and make them instead promotions for healthier items:

“National Greasy Foods Day and National Fast Food Day: There’s a pizza day, a fried chicken day, tater tot day… there’s already enough specific greasy food days celebrated throughout the year, and let’s face it, fast food consumption isn’t slowing down. In fact, the average American spends $1,200 a year on fast food, but what we find to be the most alarming of stats, is that children consume an estimated 12% of their calories from fast food… Supermarkets can gracefully avoid these two holidays or offer the antithesis by encouraging healthful eating, but doing so by showcasing delicious “anti-fast food” options.” ^[22]Lempert, Phil. Food Holidays We Should NOT Be Celebrating. Supermarket Guru Blog. 25 October 2018. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.supermarketguru.com/articles/food-holidays-we-should-not-be-celebrating/

Where have fake food holidays come from?

Food holidays can come from multiple sources, and may have no rhyme or reason for actually existing.

“There’s no fixed, regulated process required to create [a food day]… a significant number of food holidays have obscure and unverifiable beginnings, likely because they can be launched by anyone.” ^[23]Kang, Jimin. Nobody knows why we have so many national food holidays. Boston, MA: The Counter. 1 August 2018. Accessed December 2021 at https://thecounter.org/national-food-holiday-origin/

In the United States, there’s actually only ten official statutory holidays. On top of that, there’s an additional 44 government-sanctioned national observances such as Mother’s Day, Flag Day and National School Lunch Day.

Some food holidays have sprung from genuine grass root efforts, such as Nutella Day on February 5th.

Other food-related days are created by non-governmental or non-profit agencies, days such as World Milk Day or Family & Consumer Sciences Day.

In the early 1990s, this was in fact often the case:

“While fingering through pages of ‘Chase’s Annual Events — The Day-by-Day Directory to 1992′, I learned that… the days, weeks and months designated as tributes to foods everything from apples to zucchini are bountiful enough to make you kick yourself for complaining that the holiday season has ended and there’s nothing left to celebrate. Why, this month alone you should be marking your calendars for: Fiber Focus Month, Hot and Spicy Food International Day (Jan. 18), National Oatmeal Month, National Pie Day (Jan. 23), National Pizza Week (begins Jan. 12), National Popcorn Day (Jan. 26), National Prune Breakfast Month, and National Soup Month. How are these special events declared? Certainly not by presidential proclamation. George Bush saves his pen for designating only a few food-related celebrations, including National Agriculture Day and National School Lunch Week.

The truth of the matter is that most such occasions happen the same way that Gold Rush prospectors struck it rich — by staking a claim. But instead of miners, most of these claims are staked by public-relations specialists, advertisers, marketers and commissions eager to tout their products. National Prune Breakfast Month began in 1985 because the California Prune Board proclaimed and promoted it. The reasons? Nothing more mysterious than the facts that most prunes are eaten for breakfast and January is a time for making healthy resolutions. The Campbell Soup Co. declared National Soup Month in 1981 because consumption is at its highest then. Americans buy an average of 100 cans of soup every second of every day during January. Campbell’s uses the event to introduce new products (this year it’s Chunky Classic Chicken Noodle and a few new varieties in the Healthy Request line), and in promotional and advertising campaigns.” — From Apples to Zucchini: There’s a special day to honor practically every food. Longansport, Indiana: Logansport Pharos-Tribune. 15 January 1992. Page A5, col 1.

Other food holidays are rooted in local or specific activities that spread. Examples include Doughnut Day and Spedie Day.

Many now though are just made up by bloggers out of thin air, who maintain websites dedicated to nothing but “holidays” or “specially-designated days”. While the notion might seem jarring or preposterous to some, this is literally exactly what happens.

“Trade groups invented most of the lesser-known celebrations, Mr. Schmidt said, but social media has given the power back to the people. “It seems to me that it’s been taken out of the hands of the trade organizations,” he said. “That’s not where the creativity is coming from anymore.”” ^[24]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online.

Thus, the creation of such invented fake holidays depends entirely on the whim, personal taste, and knowledge — or lack of knowledge — on the part of any given blogger, on any given day.

A poorly-informed blogger in a hurry might not take a second to check to see if, for example, there’s already a Candy Day, and decide to say on their blog that it’s on 4th of November for no particular reason. (Meanwhile in this specific instance, there had in fact already been one for decades: in 1916, the National Confectioner’s Association of the United States had voted to designate the second Saturday of October as “National Candy Day”, and that observance carried on for decades.)

But some of them just don’t care — historical accuracy is not their remit, or forte. Their feeling is that it doesn’t matter if it’s randomly made up with no real connection to anything, as long as it catches on and gets them clicks.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, most bloggers and webmasters compiling food holidays seemed to do their level best to compile what actually existed. Brownielocks, which started in 1999, still prides itself on its integrity in that regard: “It’s got to be validated! And, to do that I require a few things. First, I’d like to know the origin of it. And, by doing that I usually require that an observance be listed in the Chase’s Calendar of Events or that it has an official website dedicated to it. This, “We don’t know how this observance began” doesn’t cut it on my site. Otherwise, it could just be made up by someone for attention or to fill in a blank day.” ^[25]Accessed December 2021 athttps://www.brownielocks.com/startaholiday.html

John-Bryan Hopkins, the writer behind the Foodimentary Twitter feed (started 2006) and accompanying website (started 2009), didn’t have any such scruples about verifying holidays: in fact, he went heavily into inventing food days from thin air to fill in blank spots.

“John-Bryan Hopkins is the social media consultant from Alabama who created Foodimentary, which he started by compiling about 200 food holidays that already existed in some form. He readily admits to then making up Tater Tot Day, National Whiskey Day and others starting in 2006 as a way to fill up the rest of the calendar. “Early on, I’d wake up in the morning and realize I didn’t have anything for the blog that day,” he said. “I’d think, ‘What day can I make today?’ ” ^[26]Spata, Christopher and Michelle Stark. Ever wonder where all those national food holidays come from? The answer is complicated. Tampa Bay, Florida: The Tampa Bay Times. 15 August 2016. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/food/cooking/ever-wonder-where-all-those-national-food-holidays-come-from-the-answer-is/2289564

What criteria does he use for making up a holiday? Apparently, he just applies the “what sticks to the wall” principle:

“To make up a holiday, [John-Bryan Hopkins of Foodimentary] says it’s a matter of just putting it out there and doing some coordinated marketing around the day. “If I’m on Twitter and I have 850,000 followers and I get 100 or 150 retweets for a national day post, in the Google database, that day exists,” says Hopkins. “Next year, that day is that day.” ^[27]Ransom, Diana. Why the Best Shopping Holiday Is One You Make Up Yourself. Slate Magazine. 28 November 2014. Accessed October 2021 at https://slate.com/business/2014/11/made-up-shopping-holidays-are-best-for-businesses.html

Jonathan Alderson, who runs Days of the Year with Samantha Simpson, doesn’t see a problem with that and engages in some very weak reasoning to equate Burger Day with Christmas Day:

“To some degree, all holidays are ‘made up,’ Christmas, etc., included. Arguably, they’ve just been around for longer,” he wrote via email from London. “Burger Day, as our go-to example, was very definitely made up. But if everybody celebrates it, does it matter whether it was a formal proclamation by a president… or a whim-gone-viral which brings a smile to people’s faces? I’m not convinced that there’s much difference.” ^[28]Spata, Christopher and Michelle Stark. Ever wonder where all those national food holidays come from?

Another promoter of made-up food holidays, Ben Kaplan of National Today Calendar, unsurprisingly agrees, and gives three criteria that he feels determine if a made-up day will take off:

“[He lists] three requirements to “create” a new holiday: a batch of initial “seed” influencers, shareable social assets and a hook that news media outlets can pick up on.” ^[29] Drickey, Will. Inside The Quirky Marketing Of Obscure Holidays. Pasadena, California: AList. 21 November 2017. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.alistdaily.com/social/obscure-quirky-holidays/

Even though John-Bryan Hopkins doesn’t have the same scruples about fabricating food days that the author of Brownielocks does, he says he has some scruples further down the line, which is not making up these days for money:

“Hopkins said that the idea of selling off holidays is ‘offensive,’ and that charging for the creation of days “will eventually degrade its importance and even make food holidays a joke.” He lives in fear that one day, people will grow bored with food holidays… To keep people interested, Hopkins insists, fake holidays must be created the proper way—with integrity. ‘I take what I do seriously,’ he said, ‘and want to protect it from abuse.'” ^[30]Tuttle, Brad. Meet the Guy Who Totally Makes Up the Fake Holidays We Celebrate.

In short, the justification for fabricating fake food days could be said to be simply “nothing succeeds like success” — and it’s hard to argue with it.

The first printed sources of food holidays

Promotional food holidays have been around since at least the very start of the 1900s. These were promoted by means of newspapers. One of the very early ones is Apple Week, which began in 1904 ^[31]”Apple Week is one of the earliest food holidays. It began in 1904. By the 1970s, the week became a month, and by the 1990s the apple celebration had grown to three months, said Kay Rentzel, director of the U.S. Apple Association’s national apple month program.” — Severson, Kim. Having a Snack? Make It a Holiday..

In the first half of the 1900s, the United States government began keeping a written list of these types of promotional days to assist commerce. Maintenance of that list passed for a few years to a non-governmental organization, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and then was privatized in the form of an annual printed book put out by a for-profit company.

Special Days, Weeks and Months — U.S. Department of Commerce, Inquiry and Reference Section.

As early as 1948 ^[32]It’s not clear what year publication of the booklet actually began in, whether 1948 was the first year or not. 1948 is the first year for which CooksInfo has found evidence., the U.S. Department of Commerce (Inquiry and Reference Section) offered for 10 cents a 25-page booklet of “holidays” in the United States. A 1949 listing describes the booklet thusly:

“This compilation of specially designated days, weeks and months is designed to assist businessmen in coordinating advertising and other promotional plans with such events.” ^[33]Rhoads, Joseph. H. 1949 Guide to Government Information on Retailing. Washington, D.C. United States Department of Commerce. 1949. Page 15.

A California newspaper reporter describes the booklet:

“Just for the fun of it, suppose you want to find out when the United States is to observe “Large Size Week.” Well, this is what you do and if you’re lucky you’ll know about it before the week of Jan. 16-26, which is it. First, you write to Marjorie V. Davis of the inquiry and reference section of the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington. It’s her job to get these special days straightened out.

A 25-page bulletin on good white paper, done by the government printer, arrived in town today, just chock full of information. A neat foreword advises you that “the Department of Commerce assumes no responsibility for the statement” concerning the various special days, weeks and months which now pock the calendar…This thing goes on for 25 pages, but you’ve got to give Uncle Sam’s Inquiry Reference some credit. They tell you that April 1-8 is National Laugh Week. You’re supposed to laugh, you know, when they deduct your income tax to help pay the cost of this printing and everything… This little booklet from Miss Davis carries plump into the night of Dec. 31, which she states is New Year’s eve.” — Fowler, Guy. U.S. Bulletin Lists Special Weeks For Any Old Thing. North Hollywood, California: Valley Times. Thursday, 25 March 1948. Page 11, col. 4

The cost of the booklet was 10 cents:

“The 1947 edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States, prepared by the Bureau of Census, and a booklet entitled “Special Days, Weeks and Months in 1948″ are now available for distribution. They may be ordered from the United States Department of Commerce office, 301 O’Rourke Estate building, Butte… The booklet on special days contains all special days, weeks and months designated by the 48 states. It costs 10 cents.” — Government Books Offered for Sale. Butte, Montana: The Montana Standard. Sunday, 21 March 1948. Page 16, col. 2.

Here is a 1950 edition in electronic form in the Google book library: Special Days, Weeks and Months in 1950.

Special Days, Weeks and Months — U.S. Chamber of Commerce

In 1953, responsibility for the bulletin passed to the United States Chamber of Commerce, as noted by this 1953 news piece from Michigan:

“The National Chamber of Commerce has taken over the task of publishing the annual booklet listing “special days, weeks and months,” previously issued by the Department of Commerce. Things have come to the pass in the United States where promoters and patriots have more “special weeks” than there are weeks in the year. Which no doubt will be corrected by the National Chamber, which would not like to have Apple Week and Pear Week being observed at the same time.

In taking over the booklet publication from the Department of Commerce, the National Chamber of Commerce will no doubt save a bit of taxpayer’s expense. For we assume Department of Commerce printing is by the government.

But the National Chamber, despite some snickering by this columnist and others concerning the plethora of “special weeks” in the U. S., rises nobly to defend the tradition. “Our purpose in publishing the booklet,” reports the National Chamber, “stems from the well-established fact that special days, weeks and months are an effective means of promoting community and business welfare. There are a good many people, however, who find these special events just a shade silly. Frankly, we find this view just a shade superficial,” replies the National Chamber. “No doubt some of the slogans for special events are humorous. But they also serve the practical purpose of calling attention to something a lot of folks believe important.

“Some citizens contend, for example, that National Pickle Week can hardly be a dignified event. We contend that National Pickle Week should and does arouse memories of picnics-past-and midnight snacks to come, both of which, to our view, are thoroughly worthwhile pursuits.”

In short, the National Chamber avers that it is out to defend the special weeks as “part of our American folklore — and, indeed, our national sense of humor.” For the purpose of this discussion, let us then describe the special weeks as confusing rather than silly. And if the National Chamber wants to make an issue of it, let it reconcile Save the Cat Week and Save the Birds Week. From the practical viewpoint one or the other will have to be sacrificed in saving one or the other.

There is National Cotton Week, usually emphasizing cloth rather than cottonseed oil. For cottonseed oil is used in the manufacturing of oleomargarine — and oleo is frowned on by the dairy interests, particularly during National Dairy Week. But all other considerations aside, the special events from Pickle Week to Boy Scout Week and Cancer Control Month do have purposes other than “crass materialism,” as the National Chamber reports.

The National Chamber chalks up a victory for free enterprise in noting the abundance of special weeks in the United States. A sense of humor and sense of values are “entirely lacking in all directed economies since the rays [sic] of ancient Egypt and, perchance, before,” it reports.

If free enterprise includes the opportunity to promote your product or your community or your cause, then the United States is indeed enjoying the fruits of freedom. This is a heartening quality in American freedom that is seldom considered: The opportunity for anyone with sufficient enthusiasm and drive to organize a campaign for the benefit of himself or his group or for charity. Based in this concept of freedom of action are such nationally popular and well-supported fund campaigns as those to fight polio and cancer and heart disease and tuberculosis. The Community Chest, lumping together fund-raising drives of worthwhile projects, is another campaign with popular appeal. And the National Chamber is correct in pointing out that in totalitarian countries the state-controlled programs designed to “appeal” to the people are generally for the benefit of the ruling clique — not the people or any private group.” — Dunathan, Clint. Weeks In The Year. Escanaba, Michigan: The Escanaba Daily Press. Wednesday, 19 August 1953. Page 4, col. 6.

Chase’s Calendar of Events

Chase’s Calendar of Events began printing in 1957. In 1958, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce saw an opportunity to get out of the special holiday tracking responsibility it had only recently undertaken, and passed the torch to Chase’s:

“Bill Chase… first published a calendar of events and notable occasions in 1957. He’s 85 now [Ed: in 2007], and lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., with his wife, Helen. The idea came to him when he was a newspaper librarian at the Flint Journal. Reporters and editors were constantly looking for timely subjects on which to build news stories. So, with the help of his brother, the late Harrison Chase, he compiled a list. The next year, the United States Chamber of Commerce, which had been printing a promotional publication called “Special Days, Weeks and Months,” passed the task on to the Chases. Things grew from there. The first edition had fewer than 400 events. About two dozen were food-related, like Honey for Breakfast Week and National Drive and Dine Out Month. Mr. Chase and his wife stopped editing the book in 1989, and the McGraw-Hill Companies now publish it. Next year’s [Ed: 2008] 50th anniversary edition will have 12,000 listings.” ^[34]Severson, Kim. Having a Snack? Make It a Holiday.

A new edition of Chase’s comes out each year, costing in the range of $100 US. Purchasers also get access to a login allowing access to a private website. It is regarded by PR professionals as the authority in the field. It will consider entries for submission but will not accept any payment for such, ensuring editorial independence:

“For serious students of the genre, there is something of an authority: Chase’s Calendar of Events, 750 pages of notable birthdays, community happenings and holidays. If someone develops an idea for, say, Bread Pudding Recipe Exchange Week (May 1-7) and submits a form found in the back of the book, it will be considered for inclusion. Chase’s has standards, and not every proposal makes the cut. An organization has to agree to sponsor the holiday, or there has to be some sort of ongoing promotion or tangible enthusiasm for it, said Holly McGuire, who edits the book in Chicago. “If you want to say May is Horseradish Month you can do it, but will you get attention for that? Will people take you seriously?” she said. In fact, the National Horseradish Information Council petitioned Chase’s, and now the spicy root is celebrated in July. The politics of food manufacturing can leave a holiday dead in the water. Through her research, Ms. McGuire discovered four separate chocolate holidays. The National Confectioners Association recognizes them all. “As a consequence, I won’t have that in the book,” she said. “If they’re not taking a stand, then I’m not going to.” ^[35] Severson, Kim. Having a Snack? Make It a Holiday.

The website is here: https://rowman.com/page/chases

Here is an electronic version of the 1986 edition on the Open Library that you can borrow / preview: Chase’s Calendar of Events 1986

The Calendar of Self-Indulgence

In the 1980s, humorist Sandra Boyton began a series of calendars called “The Calendar of Self-Indulgence” for the “Recycled Paper Products Company”.

Some newspaper columnists in the 1980s used these calendars as a source of inspiration for their mentions of food holidays:

“No doubt intended for the portly and proud of it is the ‘1984 Calendar of Self-Indulgence‘, which features cartoons and food holidays. Owners of this calendar, for example, will be pleased to learn that the week of Aug. 5-11 not only features National Waffle Day and National Root Beer Float Day, but National Raspberries-And-Cream, Frozen Custard, Rice Pudding, S’Mores and Raspberry-Bombe days as well.” — Judds, Ann. 1984: A new year requires a new calendar. Tallahassee, Florida: Tallahassee Democrat. Wednesday, 28 December 1983. Page 2C, col. 3.

The calendars are still being issued, as of 2022.

Food Holiday Websites

As the Internet and websites began to take off in the late 1990s / early 2000s, some websites began informally offering lists of food holidays. These became easy, quick references for people to use rather than flipping through printed guides. In a few years, the development of these food holiday websites evolved into a money-making business for some, who would not only list the food holidays, but also help invent and promote them for a fee.

This list is presented roughly in order of appearance on the Internet.

Blue Mountain

https://www.bluemountain.com/

Start date: Founded in 1996

Founded by Susan Polis Schutz and Stephen Schutz, Blue Mountain was one of the first big e-card sites. They provided lists of food (and other holidays) to provide reasons for people to use their e-cards to send “holiday greetings” to friends. In 1999, the site was sold to Excite@Home, and then in 2001 to American Greetings.

In 2001, the site was cited as a source of food holidays by some newspaper columnists. ^[36]For example: A partial list of a year’s worth of days to celebrate. State College, Pennsylvania: Centre Daily Times. Sunday, 7 January 2001. Page 8C, col. 5. .

The site was still extant as of 2022.

Guestfinder.com

Start date: December 1996 ^[37] https://web.archive.org/web/19961224131818/http://guestfinder.com/

In 2001, the site was listed as a source of food holidays by some newspaper columnists. ^[38]Learn offbeat holidays with Internet help. Atlanta, Georgia: The Atlanta Constitution. Tuesday, 7 August 2001. Page B2, col. 1.. Created by a Lorilyn Bailey. The site listed holidays as a sideline of information.

Defunct as of 2014.

CooksInfo

CooksInfo went online in 1999 ^[39]First under the domain name of practicallyedible.com, which was later assigned to a side blog ; the information presented at the time included the start of a food holidays section, though it focussed on mainstream, genuine traditional and historical holidays.

Brownielocks and The 3 Bears

Start date: 1999

Brownielocks lists its first copyright date as 1999.

The site strives to avoid presenting fake food holidays. Its mission statement includes the following:

“We were the FIRST on the net to provide this extensive validated listing. We also try to be as accurate and up-to-date as possible. All our holidays are validated with sponsors, organizations, proclamations, history; or, we validate the source or origin for an observance to prove it’s not made up. Although we have holidays for most days, there are a few that are blank. I realize social media spouts these daily. I’m sure you know that some are just made up and fake. I do not do ads. I do not try to make money from keeping these listings.” ^[40]Accessed December 2021 at https://www.brownielocks.com/month2.html

The site was still extant as of 2022.

tfdutch.com

http://www.tfdutch.com/

Start date: The site has been active since at least April 1999. ^[41] https://web.archive.org/web/19990427163914/http://www.tfdutch.com/

A web archive capture from 1999 shows it beginning to list designated theme / event months, and says that it was maintained by a Pete Berry. The site name stands for “The Flying Dutchman”. Since at least 2006, it has had enough actual food holiday information to be a resource to newspaper columnists on the topic. ^[42]Rombeck, Terry. Lobster, jelly doughnuts and dry martinis among consumables on industry’s quirky holiday calendar. Lawrence, Kansas: Lawrence Journal World. Wednesday, 31 May 2006. Pp 1D, 3D.

It is now (at least as of 2022, and probably earlier) maintained by a Chad Vance.

The site was still extant as of 2022.

holidayinsights.com

http://holidayinsights.com

Start date: Its copyright says the site started in 2000.

The site says, “Our Mission: This site is dedicated to provide information, content and, of course fun, for holidays big and small from around the world. Our goal is to document and tell you about them all.” It is mentioned as a resource by some newspaper columnists in the early 2000s. ^[43]For instance: Schideler, Karen. Feeling poetic — or just hungry? Wichita, Kansas: The Wichita Eagle. Wednesday, 5 April 2006. Page 6D, col. 2.

The contact information gives a location of Rochester, New York.

The site was still extant as of 2022.

Wellcat Holidays

http://www.wellcat.com/

Start Date:  March 2000 is listed by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine as the site’s first appearance. ^[44]Accessed October 2021 at https://web.archive.org/web/20000302152643/http://www.wellcat.com/holiday.html

The site started with a list of 40 holidays created by Thomas and Ruth Roy. The Roys actually began holiday creation in 1986, long before the public Internet even existed, using instead the medium of radio to get the word out:

“Needing a discussion topic during his radio talk show in 1986, Roy told his Lebanon, Pa., listeners that they should be celebrating Northern Hemisphere Hoodie-Hoo Day by running outside at high noon and yelling “Hoodie-Hoo” to chase winter away.” ^[45] Houck, Jeff. Couple Turn Oddball Holidays Into Hobby. Tampa, Florida: The Tampa Tribune. 7 April 2002.

The couple are responsible for such days as “Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbors’ Back Porch Night“.

They and their holidays were very popular with newspaper columnists in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s.

Their Wellcat site, maintained out of Lebanon, PA, runs no ads. Since 1994, the couple has offered instead consulting services (which they call the “Wellness Permission League” on how businesses can leverage the “holidays”. ^[46]Greenberg, Rick. Holler Out Loud! That’s the Holiday for Today; You Can Name Your Own in March. Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post. 12 October 1994.

The site was still extant as of 2022.

Bizarre American Holidays

This site was at http://library.thinkquest.org/2886/.

Start date: April 2000

In 2001, the site was listed as a source of food holidays by some newspaper columnists. ^[47]For instance: The Edge Column. Austin, Texas: The Daily Texan. Monday, 5 March 2001. Page 2, col. 1. This was located at www.library.thinkquest.org, which went offline in 2013. An archived version of the holiday site at web.archive.org says that it had been created by Larissa Wilson and Colleen Gilg. ^[48] https://web.archive.org/web/20010124092200/http://library.thinkquest.org/2886/

The site went defunct sometime between March 2009 and February 2011. ^[49]https://web.archive.org/web/20090309044901/http://library.thinkquest.org:80/2886/

DailyGlobe.com

Start date: May 1998 ^[50]https://web.archive.org/web/19980530111408/http://www.dailyglobe.com:80/

In 2001, dailyglobe.com was listed as a source of food holidays by some newspaper columnists. ^[51]For example: A partial list of a year’s worth of days to celebrate. State College, Pennsylvania: Centre Daily Times. Sunday, 7 January 2001. Page 8C, col. 5.

The site was listed as “under construction” for many years, and had gone defunct by the end of 2014.

The Nibble

Start date: The Nibble website gives their first copyright date as 2005 ^[52]https://www.thenibble.com/fun/more/facts/food-holidays.asp.

It has been cited over the years by various columnists ^[53]For example: Moose, Debbie. Crepe Suzette lovers, it’s your day. Raleigh, North Carolina: The News and Observer. Sunday, 6 May 2012. Page 2D, col. 2. as a source of food holiday information.

The site was still extant as of 2022.

Foodimentary

https://foodimentary.com/

Start date: 2006

The author of Foodimentary is John-Bryan Hopkins.

His first Internet publication medium appears to have been Twitter, where he began broadcasting about “food holidays” in 2006, according to his Twitter profile. His original Twitter account was “@foodimentaryguy”, but somewhere along the way, that account was oddly “suspended for having violated Twitter rules” (as it now shows, though the mind boggles what exactly about a food holiday could have offended the Twitter algorithms.) ^[54]John-Bryan Hopkins: @foodimentaryguy. Keeler, Janet K. Nibbling in the Twitterverse. St Petersburg, Florida: Tampa Bay Times. Wednesday, 27 May 2009. Page 6E, col. 5 .

In 2009, he’s mentioned again as a Twitter source, though the handle has changed to ‘@foodimentary’: “TWITTER. Foodimentary: @foodimentary. Look here for food tidbits, trivia and facts”. ^[55]Justus, Jennifer. Click to cook: Technology replaces cookbook in kitchen. Nashville, Tennesse: The Tennessean. Monday, 19 October 2009. Page 8D, col 1. (The current Twitter profile shows that the change was made in November 2008).

The Twitter handle is still now, as of 2021, ‘@foodimentary”, which is to say, https://twitter.com/Foodimentary. As of December 2021, the account has 720,000 followers.

It appears as though a corresponding website was first set up a few years later in February 2010, at least going by webarchive.org records. Here is a screen capture of the first incarnation of the site: Foodimentary site in Feb. 2010.

He is based in Birmingham, Alabama. ^[56]Ransom, Diana. Why the Best Shopping Holiday Is One You Make Up Yourself.

Hopkins has simply made up out of thin air many of the food holidays that he has promoted. He freely admits it.

“According to TIME, he created a majority of the national food days just by filling it out on his calendar on his website. When he first started his website, 175 food-related days existed, and he just filled in the rest. Although his days are never decreed by a government official, people take his calendar as the official word on the matter since it has existed for so long.” ^[57]Sazegar, Nicole. Where Did National Food Days Even Come From? Los Angeles, CA: Entity Mag. 20 July 2017. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.entitymag.com/national-food-days/

Low end estimates of how many food days he has invented start at 170:

John-Bryan Hopkins from foodimentary.com [says] “I am the guy who has created about 173 of the national food holidays we celebrate today,” ^[58]Ransom, Diana. Why the Best Shopping Holiday Is One You Make Up Yourself.

Higher end range estimates go up to 200:

“John-Bryan Hopkins is the social media consultant from Alabama who created Foodimentary, which he started by compiling about 200 food holidays that already existed in some form. He readily admits to then making up Tater Tot Day, National Whiskey Day and others starting in 2006 as a way to fill up the rest of the calendar. “Early on, I’d wake up in the morning and realize I didn’t have anything for the blog that day,” he said. “I’d think, ‘What day can I make today?'” ^[59]Spata, Christopher and Michelle Stark. Ever wonder where all those national food holidays come from?

Even though by his own admission he is not a cook, the existing food holidays didn’t catch his imagination, so he just made up his own:

“There weren’t enough food holidays — and [some] of the ones that existed were outdated because some foods had fallen out of favor. So he started making his own national food days.” ^[60] One Person Decides the National Food Holidays.

He also admits to later retiring food holidays that he had made up that he feels just didn’t catch on:

“He revises the calendar annually, adding new holidays while retiring others that fail to catch on. This year, Foodimentary will celebrate its first IPA Day, named for the hoppy style of beer. National Noodle Ring Day is out.” ^[61]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online.

Some people credit his reach to the website, but in fact the website often ranks a bit lower in Google search results than other holiday sites. His reach more likely comes from his vast Twitter audience that has remained loyal over the years, though the number of followers at the end of 2021 — 720,000 — appears to be down from the 850,000 cited for him in 2016. ^[62]Spata, Christopher and Michelle Stark. Ever wonder where all those national food holidays come from?

His food holidays website does not sell any merchandise or consulting services nor run any ads:

“Mr. Hopkins, a social media consultant, does not sell advertising on his site. He does it for the attention — and clicks.” ^[63]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online.

He published a book on Food Holidays in 2018: Foodimentary: Celebrating 365 Food Holidays with Classic Recipes. (Wellfleet Press, 2018)

The site is still extant as of 2022.

KOOPERSMITHin’

http://adriennesiouxkoopersmith.blogspot.com/

Start date: November 2007.

The author, Adrienne Sioux Koopersmith, bills herself as “America’s Premier Eventologist” and “The Premier Eventologist in the History of The World”. Her first invented holiday, “National Splurge Day”, was actually championed by her in 1994, well before her writing on blogspot began. ^[64]”NATIONAL SPLURGE DAY ©1994 slated annually for June 18. Celebrating its 15TH Year in 2008.” Friday, 21 December 2007. Accessed October 2021 at
http://adriennesiouxkoopersmith.blogspot.com/2007/12/from-creator-of-national-splurge-day.html

In an interview with CNN, Koopersmith said she had invented more than 1900 days. ^[65]Criss, Dough. Anyone can make up a holiday. This woman made up 1,900. CNN. 26 February 2018. Accessed October 2021 at https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/26/us/wacky-holidays-who-creates-them-trnd/index.html

“Koopersmith used to have lots of her holidays published in Chase’s book [Ed: Chase’s Calendar of Events]] (about 35 to 50, according to McGuire), but she asked to have them removed because she felt like people were stealing her holidays and claiming them as their own.” ^[66]Criss, Dough. Anyone can make up a holiday. This woman made up 1,900.

The blog runs no ads (which is also a restriction of the type of platform being used.)

The site is still extant as of 2022.

Checkiday

https://www.checkiday.com/

Start date: 12 February 2011.

Authored by Seth Westphal. ^[67]Accessed October 2021 at https://www.checkiday.com/about.php

The site offers some “holiday” sponsorship opportunities.

Still extant as of 2022.

Days of the Year

Start date: The Wayback Machine archive shows the site first going live in June 2011. ^[68] https://web.archive.org/web/20110629013222/https://www.daysoftheyear.com

The co-founders of the Days of the Year web site are Robin Smith and Jono Alderson. The Days of the Year website is based in York, England ^[69]”Mr. Alderson’s site is based in York, England.” — Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online. . Their Linked-In profiles shows that the site is a side venture from their day jobs.

In 2021, the site listed five contributors to it. ^[70]Accessed December 2021 at https://www.daysoftheyear.com/about/

The site offers paid sponsorship packages ^[71]Accessed December 2021 at https://www.daysoftheyear.com/advertising/

Still extant as of 2022.

Kuriose Feiertage (Curious Holidays)

https://www.kuriose-feiertage.de

Start date: October 2011. ^[72] https://web.archive.org/web/20121204144525/http://www.kuriose-feiertage.de/2011/10/

Based in Bonn, Germany, this is a German language site. The author, Sven Giese, often goes to great lengths to try to determine the “legitimacy” of a day, or failing that, at least the source of it. He also offers further reading resources for many of the days. The days on the site can be sorted by month, or by theme (such as Health, Alcohol, etc.)

Still extant as of 2022.

National Day Calendar

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/

Start date: 2013

The National Day Calendar site was started in  2013. Based in Mandan, North Dakota, the National Day Calendar was created in 2013 by Marlo Anderson, who is still involved in the site as of 2022.

While earlier special holiday entrants to the web space faded or went away, National Day Calendar has gone on to become one of the leading ones.

“Despite what the name might imply, National Day Calendar—like the days it promotes (including National Avocado Day)—is not affiliated with any governmental agency. National Day Calendar is a privately held organization based in Mandan, the seventh-largest city in North Dakota. The company’s website keeps a page for each national day it recognizes, including origin stories and suggested ways to celebrate (most often by consuming something). The design could be charitably described as glitchy and premodern. It is, at least, not the sort of entity one might expect to be capable of overwhelming the zeitgeist with phenomena like National Siblings Day. This small company seems to have found a way, despite so much heated geopolitical discourse surrounding the global rise of ethnonationalism, to get everyone talking about avocados. [Marlo] Anderson immediately agrees to talk. He describes himself as a serial entrepreneur. He started National Day Calendar almost seven years ago [Ed: in 2013], as a blog about national days.” ^[73]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day: Why millions of people are extremely eager to celebrate fake holidays sponsored by corporations. Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic. 20 August 2019. Accessed October 2021 at https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/08/happy-national-corporate-promotional-day/596443/

There are several people now working on the site; the staff list is here: https://nationaldaycalendar.com/about-us/

The site does make food holidays up:

“In the past few years, [Anderson] estimates that the company has started 150 days…” ^[74]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

To raise money for their operations, the site runs ads, and sells related merchandise:

“Anderson dredged all of the days up and put them on one calendar that he could print and sell. For the digital version of the calendar, the website, he sold ads. Some of these ads, he says, go to relevant industries that want to sponsor a particular day’s page. But anyone can advertise.” ^[75]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

The site also charges to have a proposed day accepted and listed as a designated “national” holiday:

“National Day Calendar charges between $2,300 and $4,000 to add new days.” ^[76]Spata, Christopher and Michelle Stark. Ever wonder where all those national food holidays come from? .

Still, not every proposal is accepted, and according to the site, owing to a “committee” vetting process that proposals have to go through, only a very small percentage of proposals are accepted:

“Anderson says the committee process means people can’t simply pay to create a new one.” ^[77]Spata, Christopher and Michelle Stark. Ever wonder where all those national food holidays come from?  . “He is indignant at the suggestion that he might accept payments from various industries—the avocado growers, for example—to make sure their application for a new day makes it to the top of the pile. “You will not believe the money we’ve turned away because of that exact scenario,” Anderson said, chuckling, then getting serious. “We’re not a pay-for-play organization. We think having a national day is special. We have to be good stewards of the calendar.” ^[78]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

Reputedly, the acceptance rate can be as low as 25 out of 20,000 applications per year. ^[79]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

But if your proposal — and money — are accepted, your day gets listed, and your campaign will get the boost of being listed and promoted on an “independent” site. Oh, and you also getting a framed piece of paper officially making your day a “national” one: “Part of what you get for the money: a framed proclamation saying your new day is “official.” ^[80]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

Still extant as of 2022.

National Today Calendar

https://nationaltoday.com/

Start date: 2017

The National Today Calendar website was started in 2017 by Ben Kaplan.

“A notable amalgamator of food days is NationalToday.com, which lists all manner of holidays but pays special attention to food and drink. It categorizes more than 300 major food holidays and over 700 minor ones. The platform was founded in 2017 by Ben Kaplan and is owned by TOP Worldwide, an Austin, Texas-based marketing company with outposts in more than 20 countries.” ^[81]Krader, Kate. Why We Keep Getting More Holidays Devoted to Your Favorite Snack. Bloomberg. 17 July 2021. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-17/those-ridiculous-national-food-days-are-good-for-small-business

The site, as of 2021, lists eight staff. ^[82]Our team. Accessed December 2021 at https://nationaltoday.com/our-team/

The site charges businesses to set up a “national holiday” for them. It also offers consulting services such as Influencer Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media Strategies, and Viral Marketing:

“A fee must cover creation of a holiday, if it’s approved. “It’s often in the thousands of dollars,” he adds. “Businesses and brands can also choose if they want our help with influencers, social media, digital content, or PR campaigns related to the holiday.” ^[83]Krader, Kate. Why We Keep Getting More Holidays Devoted to Your Favorite Snack.

In 2020, for instance, a rum company paid them to set up and promote a “national” day:

“International Dark ‘n Stormy Day is one of the newer holidays on National Today’s calendar. It kicked off in 2020 by designating June 9 as the official day of the rum-and-ginger beer highball. During the preliminary six months of negotiations with National Today, Goslings Rum, which has trademarked the cocktail, had to submit background material to prove its legitimacy. “We provided a copy of the Dark ‘n Stormy trademark certificate. It helped that June 9, 2020, was the 40th anniversary of the trademark,” says Malcolm Gosling Jr., whose family founded the company.” ^[84]Krader, Kate. Why We Keep Getting More Holidays Devoted to Your Favorite Snack.

While some holiday sites are purely an interest that the creators have fun with, or have become a hobby that may pay a bit of money on the site, National Today appears to have been built from the ground up as a business model:

“The National Today calendar is overtly a marketing exercise… National Today’s site reads, “Given the success of quirky holidays like Amazon Prime Day in the U.S. and Singles Day in China—which generated a whopping $17B in sales—increasing numbers of brands are looking for holidays that compel consumers to engage, share, and buy.” ^[85]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

The promotion of their content is done professionally drawing on the latest techniques and technology tools:

“The team at National Today scours the internet for at least one holiday for every day. The list is sent out as a newsletter to more than 10,000 media outlets. It also has a network of more than 2,500 bloggers and social media influencers who promote the holidays, turning these ludicrous days into real events. “We are the ones who made a lot of these holidays (popular),” National Today CEO Ben Kaplan explained. “We’ll have an obscure holiday no one knows about. We’ll get 100 influencers and 100 TV stations and a million people on social media to celebrate it like it’s a huge day.” There is a business case as well… Showing it can create buzz around strange days can attract prospective clients for future holidays. It’s worked with Budweiser for National Drink Beer Day (Sept. 28), Finlandia Cheese for National Waffle Day (Aug. 24) and Milk-Bone for National Dog Day (Aug. 26) among others. It’s a little self-serving, but Kaplan says it’s also fun for casual readers.” ^[86] Castillo, Michelle. There’s a PR firm behind a lot of the obscure holidays we’re suddenly celebrating. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: CNBC. 14 October 2017. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/where-did-national-dessert-day-come-from.html

And, it seems to pay off:

“The business model behind National Today, which is owned by digital agency PR Hacker, has yielded approximately $500,000 to $1 million from promoting these holidays.” ^[87] Drickey, Will. Inside The Quirky Marketing Of Obscure Holidays.

Still extant as of 2022.

What National Day Is It?

https://whatnationaldayisit.com/

Start date: April 2015 is listed by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine as the site’s first appearance. ^[88]See https://web.archive.org/web/20150429095606/whatnationaldayisit.com/

The creator of the site is William Wildridge.

The “What National Day Is It?” has software that monitors the Internet for mentions and hashtags of holidays. Based on how often a “holiday” is said the most to be on a given day, the site then lists that as the date for the holiday.

So, in effect, the date determination is entirely down to the ebbing, flowing and changing mindset of the collective hive.

Wildridge decided this was a good way to counter individual people arbitrarily dictating that a holiday was on such and such a date, and then imposing that on everyone else.

“William Wildridge tried to solve that problem by letting the masses decide. His site, WhatNationalDayIsIt.com, uses an algorithm to sort through the millions of Twitter postings containing “national” and “day.” The idea is that today is whatever day Twitter says it is. He has analyzed 2.3 million Twitter posts and, in the process, received an unfiltered look at the Internet’s collective id. What he has learned is that people say a lot of nasty things on Twitter, but the things that are passed on tend to be heartfelt and positive. Take the #NationalSexDay hashtag, which gets started a lot but stays low on his list because nobody wants to retweet it. The days that are shared the most are for best friends, siblings, kissing and hugs.” ^[89]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online.

It’s also a low cost model. When you use the site index to find a certain day, such as “National Single Day” and get information about it, no human actually had to do any actual write up for the day. Instead, you get a computer generated report about historical stats on the subject: “The most recent detection of references to Single Day was 10 months ago. There were many celebrations relating to national holidays (sic) written about on social media that our algorithms picked up on the 22nd of September. In total we detected 51 total unique days being shared such as Single Day which had 29,342 people talking about it, or Singles Day having 14,572 tweets.”

Another end-user problem is that when you click to see what the “national day” is tomorrow, the site can’t tell you that yet, as enough hashtag mentions haven’t happened yet. And, the suggested dates for a “holiday” can be constantly in flux, or can appear several times:

“Hang On, It Was National Chopsticks Day Already This Year..!? Yes, this is strangely enough entirely possible. The date shown for National Chopsticks Day can change, if for instance several hundred people tweeted about Chopsticks Day in early April, then in May a few thousand people tweeted about Chopsticks day, then the date shown for National Chopsticks Day, could come up twice.” ^[90]National Chopsticks Day. What National Day Is It. Accessed July 2021 at https://whatnationaldayisit.com/day/chopsticks/

This obviously makes it very hard for a public relations person to build a social media calendar around.

Still extant as of 2022.

The National Bit

Most food holidays blasted out now on social media are not only fake “food holidays”, but fake “national” food holidays, to boot.

The web sites listing the fake food holidays just tack the word “national” in front willy-nilly. Sometimes, as you read through the text of a given page, you’ll see that they forgot they decided to elevate a day to “national” and in mid-sentence, “National” Milkshake Day gets unceremoniously graded back down to just regular old Milkshake Day.

In fact, confusion and inconsistency often reign. On some fake food holiday sites, what is “International No Diet Day” elsewhere gets downgraded to “National Diet Day” to fit better with the overall mantra of that particular site. And in John-Bryan Hopkin’s eponymous 2018 print book, “Foodimentary“, the “national” that is present on the web in front of many fake-food days gets dropped for the print version: National Cold Cuts Day and National Pound Cake Day become just plain old Cold Cuts Day and Pound Cake Day. ^[91]”The book version [Hopkins’ 2017 book Foodimentary] dispenses with the national addition, which is common in the online area.” — Giese, Sven. Buttermilk Biscuit Day – National Buttermilk Biscuit Day in the United States. 23 June 2020. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.kuriose-feiertage.de/tag-der-buttermilch-biskuits/

Some authors of other food holiday sites have mocked the propensity to call everything “national”. For instance, the author of the Holiday Insights website writes:

“Our research did not find the creator, or the origin of [National Chocolate Chip Day]. This is referred to as a “National” day. However, we did not find any congressional records or presidential proclamations for this day. It seems that many of the food and candy related days have tagged on the  word “national”.  We suspect in the midst of a sugar high, the creators got a little excited, and a wee bit carried away.” ^[92]National Chocolate Chip Day. Holiday Insights. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/May/chocolatechipday.htm

Can people just randomly and arbitrarily call any old day “national”? The plain and simple answer is, “yes”:

“The government doesn’t own the word ‘national’, so it can legally be put in front of anything.” ^[93]Powers, Pamela. Just another day: National designations overdone. Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Leader-Telgram. Sunday, 20 September 1998. Page F1, col. 1.

Why do they do it?

“Need a reason for a celebration? Just looking for something to make the day a little more special? It’s easy, really. Just look at the growing National (fill in the blank) Days. Sure, I know it’s a public relations scheme. Dropping the word national in front of something makes it seem more legitimate and therefore much more exciting.” — Powers, Pamela. Just another day: National designations overdone. Eau Claire, Wisconsin: Leader-Telgram. Sunday, 20 September 1998. Page F1, col. 1.

Tacking “National” on the front of a term has a particular crowd-appeal power to it, particularly in more jingoistic countries such as the United States:

“You can just tell people “it’s National Milkshake Day” and they will say, “Oh, great, let’s get milkshakes!” (Try it. It works on literally any day.)” ^[94] Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

And the people who do this seem to feel that the public is either unaware of what’s happening, or, even if they suspect it, don’t really care:

“As far as consumers are concerned, it’s kind of irrelevant whether it’s official or not,” said John Stanton, professor of food marketing at St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia.” ^[95]Nunn, Emily. Make it stop!

The real genuine national days

A very small number of the food holidays masquerading as “national” may have been actually been legally declared “national” at one point:

“Some of these food holidays are, believe it or not, real. Or really, “real” in the sense that someone in government has issued a proclamation or passed a law designating a particular National Food Day. The most prized are created through a joint House and Senate resolution and then signed into law by the president of the United States. This was how we got “holidays” like National Walnut Day (on May 17, 1958), made official by Dwight Eisenhower; National Catfish Day, which Ronald Reagan declared official on June 25, 1987; and both National Ice Cream Day and Month, also Reagan-era creations.” ^[96] Park, Michael. Here’s Why We Don’t Celebrate National Food Days: A look at how national food days are conceived, created, and made official by various government bodies. New York, NY: Bon Appetit Magazine. 14 July 2014. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/holidays/article/national-food-days

For instance, take proclamation 5219 signed on 9 July 1984 by U.S. President Ronald Reagan declaring June 15th of that year to be National Ice Cream Day. These types of “courtesy” proclamations are a one-shot deal, valid for that particular year only, and in fact, literally also include the exact year for which they are valid, and only valid:

“Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim July 1984 as National Ice Cream Month and July 15, 1984, as National Ice Cream Day ” ^[97]Proclamation 5219—National Ice Cream Month and National Ice Cream Day, 1984. 9 July 1948. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-5219-national-ice-cream-month-and-national-ice-cream-day-1984

They don’t repeat year after year:

“July 15, 1984, was a National Ice Cream Day; July 15, 1985, was not.” ^[98] Park, Michael. Here’s Why We Don’t Celebrate National Food Days.

Already by the mid 1960s, though, lawmakers were getting frustrated with the growing volume of requests to officially and nationally recognize someone’s pet day, especially with the growing number of annual repeats:

“Fed up with all these special observances like “National Avocado Day” and “Do-It-Yourself Week”, Rep. Emanuel Cellar (D-NY) offered a bill to set up a commission which would screen the flood of requests Congress gets to establish these things. There’s no firm figure on how many there are. But Chase’s Calendar of Annual Events estimates that if you celebrated consecutively all those listed in its current edition, you’d finish sometime in 1991.” ^[99]Fast Talker. Cincinnati, Ohio: The Cincinnati Enquirer. Sunday, 26 June 1966. Opinion section, page G1, col. 2.

A commission was set up to filter the requests, in the hopes that the filtering process would get rid of the vast majority of them:

“The House already has moved to divert the annual flood of resolutions to create special days and weeks. On March 20, the House voted 313-35 to set up a pass-the-buck commission composed of the National Archivist, the Librarian of Congress, and the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. If the Senate goes along with the idea, these gentlemen hereafter will bear the brunt of gently disproving a National Pickle Week or a National Hot Dog Day. All such resolutions would be farmed out to this commission for report and recommendation; the assumption is that 99 per cent of them would never be heard from again. A good thing, too. The 88th Congress saw 260 such resolutions; the 89th saw 445… It is too much. Doubtless all of these memorial occasions commemorate noble causes, but they have become worn pegs for publicity hand-outs and they detract from the presidential prestige. Only the press agents will miss them, once they are gone.” ^[100]Kilpatrick, James. J. Monday Holiday Bill and Ban On Special Days, Week Sane. 4th April 1967. Page 4, col. 3.

But, the Senate didn’t approve the commission, and so the status quo remained and requests grew through the 1970s and into the 1980s:

“Before 1980, according to a report by Congressional Research Service, time spent on such ‘commemorative legislation’ never amounted to more than 10 percent of all bills signed into law. But between 1980 through 1996, legislators couldn’t control themselves, and such legislation jumped by 70 percent. By 1984, during the middle of Ronald Reagan’s reign, commemorative legislation accounted for nearly one in three laws signed by the president. By the mid ’90s the media were making fun, and law-makers — fearing the backlash of a perturbed public — tried to rein themselves in” ^[101]Fussell, James A. Does escargot really need its own national celebration date? Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Portsmouth Herald. 5 April 2006. Page C6, col. 1.

Finally in 1994, a House of Representatives ban on commemorative legislation being introduced into Congress through the House was adopted:

“In the 104th Congress (1995-1996), the House adopted a new rule to reduce the number of commemorative bills and resolutions introduced and considered by the chamber. House Rule XII, clause 5, prohibits the introduction and consideration of date-specific commemorative legislation.” ^[102]Commemorations in Congress: Options for Honoring Individuals, Groups, and Events. Congressional Research Service. Updated June 11, 2019 (R43539). Accessed December 2021 at https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R43539.html#_Toc11146472

It wasn’t completely foolproof, though:

“According to the Congressional Research Service, members could still draft similar legislation that did not fit the specific definition and that was routinely considered on the House floor under the suspension of the rules procedure. The Republican proposal — which amounts to an amendment of the earlier rule — said the Speaker cannot schedule a bill or resolution that “expresses appreciation, commends, congratulates, celebrates, recognizes the accomplishments of, or celebrates the anniversary of, an entity, event, group, individual, institution, team or government program; or acknowledges or recognizes a period of time for such purposes.” Politicians in the House can still talk about an issue on the floor, but there is no vote. The Senate still votes on these resolutions, but it offers only sentiment, as well as bringing the discussion to the forefront if for only a few minutes.” ^[103] Yorio, Kara. A day for every cause: Slapstick or serious, commemorations clog the calendar. Passaic, New Jersey: The Herald-News. 22 May 2012. Page B1, col. 1. and Page B3.

But we’re still left with hundreds of days — both food and non-food related — that people are invited to believe are officially national, which are not, because their lofty elevation applied to that year in the past only, and what’s worse, many overlap and conflict with each other: “everything from tap dancing and pistachios to gazpacho and pigs in a blanket.” ^[104] Fussell, James A. Does escargot really need its own national celebration date?

But just because the congressional “national holiday factory” went out of business, the food industry’s demand for “national” designations for use as marketing tools did not diminish. In fact, this change coincided with the start of growing demand for even more designations owing to their usefulness on social media marketing.

To get these designations, the food industry turned to private enterprise suppliers who either fortuitously supplied them freely as part of their blogging hobby, or, for a price. And with several sources willing to supply these, and with no pesky congressional review committees in the way, the stage was set for the national food day business to burst out of the starting gates in a spectacular, unbridled race to supply the demand.

Unsurprisingly, this has resulted in runaway inflation of the term ‘national’.

National inflation

As an example of the inflationary use of the word “national”, here’s a list of food holidays from 2004. Note the absence of the word “national” in front of them at the time.

Later, various bloggers would slap “national” onto the front of most of them.

By applying “national” to everything, it’s not hard to argue that the currency of the language is being debased. But without rules to stop them, and there never will be any, the simple fact is that there will always be people who either don’t care, or just can’t help themselves.

National confusion

One of the reasons people post stuff on the Internet in the first place is for its broad reach, and most writers including bloggers delight in having an audience from far and wide: the more, the merrier, and the better for traffic numbers and ad clicks, not to mention writer’s egos. With that in mind, imagine you’re proclaiming that today is National Whatever Day, and it is then being seen by readers in Australia, Singapore, Germany, Canada, and so on. Imagine the questions that are naturally going to spring to their minds next: (a) which “nation” exactly does the national refer to; and (b) as they realize they are not physically present in that nation, are they invited to participate in Whatever Day as well, or are they excluded and therefore not allowed to eat any Whatever that day? The initial buzz you feel about Onion Ring Day slowly drains away as you realize you might be an interloper at the party.

Why not just say “Black Forest Cake Day“, and then everyone is invited to the party?

Or heck, go for broke, and pronounce it “Intergalactic Black Forest Cake Day”.

Reactions to the over-use of “national”

Marlo Anderson, creator of the National Day Calendar site, argues that the general public doesn’t care if a “national” day is genuine or not:

“By the time a day becomes woven into calendars and memories, he noticed, no one seems to care or remember whether it is “official” or not. Or people simply forget about a national day entirely, even if it exists in a record book somewhere… .” ^[105]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

On the other hand, the creator of the Holiday Insights website has strong feelings about the run-away inflation of the use of “national” attached to “holidays”. They feel that overuse is debasing the value of the true meaning of those that genuinely have received authentic national designation:

“Of particular note is the growth of “National Days”. The word “National” is being added to an overwhelmingly large number of proposed and recently created days…. We [] feel it is important to distinguish those holidays that are truly declared as a “National” day by congress or the president. This is not done lightly.” ^[106]How to Create Holidays and National Days. Accessed December 2021 at https://holidayinsights.com/create-national-holiday-days.htm

International Day Designations

Internationally-designated days — which have “international” or “world” prepended to them — tend to have more gravitas.

Official international days need United Nations (UN) recognition. These days typically come from recommendations by a UN working group or conference:

“The United Nations designates specific days, weeks, years and decades as occasions to mark particular events or topics in order to promote, through awareness and action, the objectives of the Organization. Usually, it is one or more Member States that propose these observances and the General Assembly establishes them with a resolution. On occasion, these celebrations are declared by the specialized agencies of the United Nations, such as UNESCO, UNICEF, FAO, etc., when they concern issues that fall within the scope of their competencies. Some of them may be later adopted by the General Assembly.” ^[107]United Nations. International Days and Weeks. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.un.org/en/observances/international-days-and-weeks

The chances that you will get an International Nutella Day or World Fried Pickle Day endorsed by the UN General Assembly are slim to none, because the UN is a bit pickier about what it chooses:

“International days are occasions to educate the general public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems, and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity.” — United Nations Observances. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.un.org/en/observances

For the UN, international days may promote a food item, such as coffee, tea, water or rice, but there must also be a strong and clear advocacy component to it, and it must offer opportunities for many different types of actors to participate on many levels:

“The UN has embraced [these days] as a powerful advocacy tool. The United Nations observes designated days, weeks, years, and decades, each with a theme, or topic. By creating special observances, the United Nations promotes international awareness and action on these issues. Each international day offers many actors the opportunity to organize activities related to the theme of the day. Organizations and offices of the United Nations system, and most importantly, governments, civil society, the public and private sectors, schools, universities and, more generally, citizens, make an international day a springboard for awareness-raising actions.” ^[108]United Nations Observances. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.un.org/en/observances

The UN doesn’t just throw the internationally-designated days out there in the wild after they proclaim them: they actively promote the days, including with dedicated websites that provide outreach materials and other supporting resources:

“The international observances (which also include weeks, years and decades) are some of the most visited pages on the UN website. Each international day has a dedicated website, available in the UN’s six official languages.”

They also continually measure the engagement impact of the days: what results were achieved from the collective results of everyone around the world who participated?

World Water Day (22 March) is one of the most popular.

As a rough rule of thumb, food holidays with International or World in their names tend to promote healthier, more sustainable eating habits, but that may only be because the U.S. bloggers who are fabricating food holidays haven’t yet jumped on a copy-cat bandwaggon of prepending those prefixes to their made-up food day names (a cynic might add it’s also because they rarely think of a world outside their borders…)

Food holidays as a food marketing tool

At first, it was newspapers that covered the food holidays. You would see newspaper columnists mention them bemusedly, or sneeringly, and with slightly greater frequency as the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s progressed. Now, it’s social media that covers the food days, making them news, and print media then reports on the buzz generated. Newspaper columnists, meanwhile, have transitioned into the role of increasingly inveighing against them.

The food holidays show up on social media feeds, on radio talk shows, in disc jockey spiels, and on television news channels looking for filler or human-interest stories.

Social media has made these days hyper present. For many bloggers and food website webmasters, the days provide an easy way for people to recycle website content.

Public relations departments of companies start planning well ahead of time to take advantage of them:

“As part of [a company’s] digital strategy, teams keep tabs on upcoming holidays and start planning a few months ahead of time.” ^[109]Ramirez, Elva. Taste is Trending. In: Inside Hormel Foods. September 2018. Issue VI. Page 33.

But how many of these fake food holidays are nothing but corporation creations, and how many are “genuine” days created by food fans? Is it accurate to say that all these food days are nothing but a corporate plot? Or is at least some of the promotional activity just business just taking advantage of what the market is already presenting to them, as it did with, say, Christmas? (Even in ancient Rome, business people set up special seasonal markets to sell people stuff for the Roman holiday of Saturnalia.)

“In some cases, industries are simply capitalizing on a national day that already existed—hiring publicists to “raise awareness,” buying promotion of hashtags on social media, and partnering with brands to launch celebratory ad campaigns. In other cases, the industries are now baldly creating the days.” ^[110]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

Marlo Anderson of National Day Calendar says, “Brands are turning organic days that have some popularity into commercial opportunities.” ^[111]Rubin, Julia. The Dubious, Brand-Led Surge of Fake National Holidays. Racked. 18 March 2015. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.racked.com/2015/3/18/8231685/fake-national-holidays

Some more suspicious minds may be surprised to learn that not all fake food days are necessarily corporate creations. The peanut board, for instance, says it has not created any of the peanut related holidays, such as Peanut Day, Peanut Butter Day, Peanut Brittle Day, or Peanut Butter and Jelly Day:

“According to a National Peanut Board (NPB) representative, the Board “was not part of creating any food [peanut-related] holidays.” It does, however, like to ‘join in on the celebrations.'” ^[112]Kang, Jimin. Nobody knows why we have so many national food holidays.

The National Confectioners Association maintains that it had no hand in creating any of the many various chocolate food holidays. In fact, at one point, Chase’s Calendar of Events identified four Chocolate Days on different dates, and pressed the Association to advise Chase’s which Chocolate Day they recognized. The response they got was that “the National Confectioners Association recognizes them all.” ^[113]Severson, Kim. Having a Snack? Make It a Holiday.  . In response, Chase’s said that since even the Association couldn’t make their minds up to pick one, neither would it, and so it wouldn’t list any.

There’s no doubt now, though, that fake food days are being churned out to order through sites such as National Day and National Today, which explicitly advertise that exact service, and the returns can be big:

“The creation and maintenance of national days are a phenomenon with massive financial implications. Many such days are used—or were even specifically invented—to coax people to talk about products and services. This happens on a scale that traditional advertising almost never achieves. Even spending millions on a Super Bowl commercial cannot command so much favorable attention to a product—given freely and enthusiastically by unassuming consumers who blast it into the timelines of everyone they know.” ^[114]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

Renowned food writer Darra Goldstein is troubled by the lack of transparency about where these days are coming from.

“The list of food holidays may be amusing, but its lack of transparency is troubling. How many advertising dollars went into securing each place at the national table?… Thanks to the efforts of the government or corporations, just about every day of the year in the U.S. is associated with a particular food or drink… the masterminds behind these campaigns are corporate strategists and professional lobbyists. With sufficient money, just about anyone can declare a national day, even anonymously; the sponsors behind many national food days are easy to infer but hard to uncover ” ^[115] Goldstein, Darra. National Turkey Day.

Corporate sponsors even lurk a layer or two beneath the surface of more wholesome sounding ones:

“Most food holidays are invented by people who want to sell more food… Bake for Family Fun Month, bless its heart, appears dedicated to preserving a meaningful ritual of the kitchen during February. That may well happen, but the holiday also benefits its sponsor [Ed: The Homebaking Association], an association of companies that sell flour, butter and home baking equipment.” ^[116]Severson, Kim. Having a Snack? Make It a Holiday.

And it’s not a recent phenomenon, either. Many of the “classic” ones that have been around for decades got their start with trade groups:

“[In Chase’s Calendar of Events] a good chunk of the holidays and commemorations come from corporations, advocacy groups and trade associations, such as the National Watermelon Promotion Board, which sponsors National Watermelon Month (July). ^[117]Criss, Dough. Anyone can make up a holiday. This woman made up 1,900.

Why are food holidays useful?

For marketing and business people, food holidays are a useful tool to latch onto. They can be perfect to use for building hype to drive interest, engagement, product awareness and sales: ^[118]Spata, Christopher and Michelle Stark. Ever wonder where all those national food holidays come from?

“Food holidays… [offer] great marketing for the brands that make the foods in question.” ^[119]McNeilly, Claudia. Why national food days are about not much more than doing it for the ‘gram.

Part of what makes them useful is that it is very easy to jump onboard them. Restaurant publicist Stefanie Gans says:

“I don’t know when fake food holidays started bombarding Twitter feeds, but it sure is easy to hook a story to them.” ^[120]Gans, Stefanie. August Is National Sandwich Month, Here’s Northern Virginia Magazine’s Sandwich Issue. Northern Virginia Magazine. 1 August 2014. Accessed December 2021 at https://northernvirginiamag.com/food/food-features/2014/08/01/august-is-national-sandwich-month-heres-northern-virginia-magazines-sandwich-issueits-sandwich-month/

Public relations people with clients in the food industry love these days:

“Food holidays are like catnip for public relations people, all of whom have a copy of Chase’s on their desks, said Katherine Newell Smith, a publicist who has been in the business for almost 30 years. “If you’re looking for a story and it happens to be national avocado month, it’s a hook,” she said. “Every possible commodity has something. Kimchi might have something now.” ^[121]Severson, Kim. Having a Snack? Make It a Holiday.

The days come with a built-in call-to-action to consume a particular food-stuff:

“A lot of our clients — small startups to huge Fortune 500 companies — are using all these holidays to create viral hooks,” said [Ben] Kaplan [of National Today]… “It gives consumers a call to action to do something today.” ^[122]Castillo, Michelle. There’s a PR firm behind a lot of the obscure holidays we’re suddenly celebrating.

And it’s not just people marketing physical products that leverage these food days. Webmasters, too, want in on the action, in order to divert a bit of that day’s traffic frenzy to their site: “[they] hop on the SEO train, eager to grab search traffic from people wondering what exactly these days are about… “These are things people end up searching for—content surrounding certain holidays or days or whatever you want to call them—so we try to capitalize on that search traffic,” says Lindsey Unterberger, Glamour’s executive online editor. “Most of the days are celebrating fun things in life, so it’s a good way to capitalize on stuff people genuinely enjoy.” ^[123]Rubin, Julia. The Dubious, Brand-Led Surge of Fake National Holidays.

And radio talk show hosts, newscasters and newspaper columnists were onto the usefulness of the fake food days long before webmasters even came along:

“Strange holidays are a decades-old tradition that gives… newscasters a way to fill airtime.” ^[124]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online. 

But, it’s not just about how companies have tried to bend food holidays their way for their advantage: food holidays on social media have also in turn affected the way companies market their products. There’s been a two-way change in interaction.

To be successful, a company’s efforts around a food day can’t be too overt or specific, as in traditional advertising. Instead, it has to be more about promoting the day, while ensuring that an association with that company’s background is still there in the background.

Mary Snauffer, U.S. president of Qnary, a social media management company, said in an interview:

“I think a smart brand or food company creates and promotes a national food holiday with very little branding so people can get excited about the food itself, not the brand. People don’t want to share an ad on social media, they want to share something that is part of their identity. Food can be an aspect of a person much easier than a brand can.” ^[125]Kang, Jimin. Nobody knows why we have so many national food holidays. 

It has to appear that the company is just part of the crowd joining in the conversation, rather than trying to lead or control it, while at the same time still being an identifiable voice:

“Hormel Foods embraces food holidays for, among other things, their ability to deepen the company’s voice in trending conversations on social media.” ^[126]Ramirez, Elva. Taste is Trending. In: Inside Hormel Foods. September 2018. Issue VI. Page 33.

When done right, the social media crowds view corporations as just another participant in the conversation for the fun of it, with no ulterior motive. “The result is every ad agency’s dream: An earnest and genuine form of promotion, marketing that doesn’t really seem like marketing.” ^[127]Kang, Jimin. Nobody knows why we have so many national food holidays.

One of the fortuitous things about food holiday campaigns is that leveraging them as an advertising tool costs so little:

“Food holidays are considered such effective tools, in part, because the barriers to entry are so low. Companies and industry groups can either take the fast-track route by paying a fee to an online calendar, or go the organic route by spreading the word via hashtag.” ^[128]Kang, Jimin. Nobody knows why we have so many national food holidays.

One of the reasons they cost so little is in part because social media users do the work for free for you of spreading the word about your offerings related to the food item in question:

“Social media users have proven only too eager to help them spread the word… Companies need not spend large sums of money on marketing campaigns when social media users are willing to spread the word themselves… Users are incentivized to share on social media through their common love of certain foods, playing, consciously or not, right into the hands of industry and company interests.” ^[129]Kang, Jimin. Nobody knows why we have so many national food holidays.

Does food holiday marketing pay off?

Businesses that successfully jump on board a food holiday promotion wave say that they can experience sales increases of 15% to 30% for the target product that day, compared to other, “normal” days. ^[130]Krader, Kate. Why We Keep Getting More Holidays Devoted to Your Favorite Snack.

Even the obscure holidays can pay off handsomely for the right businesses, as they offer a niche to capitalize on that others might miss:

“To avoid getting lost in the noise around the more popular quirky holidays, brands can push a more obscure day into the spotlight… Obscure holidays lend themselves to driving immediate action. By emphasizing scarcity, time pressure and locality for an emotional appeal, brands can push consumers to try something new—and to do it quickly… As social media usage becomes increasingly ubiquitous, the viral potential of obscure holidays increases.” ^[131] Drickey, Will. Inside The Quirky Marketing Of Obscure Holidays.

Marlo Anderson of National Day Calendar, which sells fake food days, maintains that corporate profits from food holidays are “simply the serendipitous result of important national days.” ^[132]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

Bill Chase, who was the first private-sector participant in this field, agreed that there’s nothing inherently wrong with businesses participating in a food holiday. But even back in 2007, he was wondering if it was all edging into the realm of the absurd:

“Mr. Chase has some thoughts on the popularity of food holidays. “There is, of course, the commercial motive,” he said. “But it seems to me that celebration is something that we all enjoy. If we can celebrate a particular food or drink or activity, it enhances our lives.” But Dried Plum Digestive Health Month? Jell-O Week? “We attempted to use good sense and reason and observe good taste and at the same time be non-judgmental,” he said. “We didn’t always succeed.” ^[133]Severson, Kim. Having a Snack? Make It a Holiday.

But we may be too quick to connect these food days with only big business. Todd Hultquist, senior manager of the Food Marketing Institute (Washington, D.C.), felt that the days were in fact particularly useful to smaller businesses who had greater agility to take advantage of them (and who could particularly benefit, no doubt, from the low cost of entry):

“These types of special events provide a great opportunity for retailers to have fun with their customers in an Americana sort of way… They are especially beneficial to smaller, independent retailers, who often have more flexibility in merchandising and promotions…” ^[134]Nunn, Emily. Make it stop!

Restaurants, whether chain, franchised or independent, have been using food holidays successfully to increase sales: “Food ‘holidays’ have served as a new maneuver from chains to get customers in the stores in recent years.” ^[135] Johnson, Hollis. McDonald’s is giving away free fries. Here’s how to get some. New York, New York: Business Insider Magazine. 13 July 2018. Accessed July 2021 at https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-free-fries-national-french-fry-day-july-13-2018-7

Food holidays popularity with the public

Corporations almost certainly wouldn’t be crowding into the food holiday space if their customers weren’t there. But why, though, are the customers there to start with? Why have fake food holidays become so popular with the public?

An Illinois food writer, Laurie Bradach, wrote:

“It’s kind of fun. The news is usually depressing and these food days are nice. If it’s National Broccoli Day, you might be able to sneak broccoli by your kids that way.” ^[136]Laurie Bradach, food writer, cited in: Churney, Dan. Food holidays run from artichokes to zucchini. Streator, Illinois: The Times. 4 May 2011. Page 13, col 2.

The days also provide an easy, safe way for social media users to get a bit of attention drawn to themselves:

“National food days provide safe and pleasant subjects that anyone can post to secure validation in the form of likes while reminding the world of his or her existence.” ^[137]McNeilly, Claudia. Why national food days are about not much more than doing it for the ‘gram.

When you’re not really sure if you have any newsworthy update about your life to post, but realize it’s Chocolate Cake Day, you can hit share on that as a way of starting some small-talk with friends:

“Everyone is trying to find something to talk about when there is nothing to talk about, said John-Bryan Hopkins.” ^[138]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online.

This proved a boon particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many people were locked in at home, unable to get out and do much. The food holidays gave people isolated in their own individual homes something to rally around together. Everyone could still go to a grocery store to buy a chocolate cake mix to get the photo share with others for Chocolate Cake Day:

“[The days] are a powerful marketing tool — never more so than during the Covid-19 pandemic.” ^[139]Krader, Kate. Why We Keep Getting More Holidays Devoted to Your Favorite Snack.

The food days also give people an excuse to dig through their old photos and recycle them for posting on social media:

“It would be weird if I randomly posted a picture of me eating a watermelon,” Ms. Khan explained. “But if there’s, like, context,” said her friend Lucy Nemerov, also 13. “National Watermelon Day — then it’s like a post,” Ms. Khan said.” ^[140]Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online.

Nothing about a fake food day post, or share, has to involve a lot of deep thought, or even an actual time commitment:

“The increasing number of food holidays is the result of a population of foodies who are desperate for something to say without wanting to think too hard about what it is they are saying. In this sense, these designated days promote the type of mindless, self-indulgence that has given foodies their negative reputation.” ^[141]McNeilly, Claudia. Why national food days are about not much more than doing it for the ‘gram.

Even better, the food days are largely non-partisan, with no or few political underpinnings, which is remarkable, given today’s tendency to politicize everything.

Have food holidays gotten out of hand?

These commemorative days can serve a purpose — educating and raising awareness about a disease or group’s plight, sparking action against injustice, boosting business or just giving people an official reason (instead of the usual rationalization) to escape the humdrum norm via a slice of pie or a margarita. Sometimes, though, the sheer number of these holidays and quirkier nature of them not only induces over-dose ennui about the more lighter-hearted ones, but also takes away from the more important ones that could effect societal change. ^[142]Yorio, Kara. A day for every cause: Slapstick or serious, commemorations clog the calendar.

Every few years, there will be a rash of food scene writers jumping into the fray to comment that food holidays are getting out of hand. The inclination might be to think that this is a contemporary reaction to a contemporary problem, but in fact, already in 1907 a newspaper writer wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece mocking all the food days:

“There is no good reason why we should not all respond heartily to the suggestion of the Riverside (Cal.) chamber of commerce that a day In March of every year be set aside to be called a ‘National Orange Day’, when every man, woman and child in the United States shall eat one or more oranges “in order to assist the greatest Industry In the state of California.” Anything that will help a California industry, we are certain, will appeal to the entire American people. Only in this, as in all other matters, there should be more or less reciprocity. That is to say, if the rest of the country eats oranges on one day of every year, just to help along the orange growers of the Golden state, then the Golden state should be willing to join with other states in boosting the leading industry of some other state. For example, if a “National Orange Day” to help California why not a “National Potato Day” to help Wisconsin, a “National Rockyford Melon Day” to boom Colorado, a ‘‘National Baked Beans Day” to assist Massachusetts, a “National Apple Day” for the benefit of New York, a “National Peach Day” ‘for Michigan, a “National Oyster Day” for Maryland, a “National Clam Day” for Rhode Island and a “National Sea Serpent Day” for New Jersey? Or. coming nearer home, why not a National Schooner Day” for St. Louis, a “National Suit Day” for Milwaukee or a “National Pretzel Day” for the Middle Western bran belt? Again, coming down to local industries, if a far Western state like California would be entitled to a day for oranges, a great central mart like Chicago, which has so many enormous industries that ought to be nurtured, should be entitled to several days. Thus we might have a “National Weinerwurst Day,” a “National Sugar-cured Ham Day,” a “National Side-rib Day,” a “National Milk-fed Chicken Day”… until to harmonize matters we would have to observe National Lettuce, National Celery, National Cabbage, National Squash and National Onion days. And even then we would only be scratching the surface of possibilities so to speak along this line. But we should not hesitate to help along a good thing simply because of a fear that it might grow upon us. Even if we shall have a ‘national day’ for every day in the year, if we are helping some infant industry to expand what’s the odds?” — If the Orange, Why Not the Potato? Chicago, Illinois: The Inter Ocean. Thursday, 7 February 1907. Page 6, col. 1.

The end of World War Two seems to have freed up space in the public mind to allow for the revival of the food day industry. In 1945, the Illinois government was getting fed up with the requests to proclaim food days:

“Employees in the office of Gov. Green of Illinois seem to be tiring of that fine old custom of having special days and weeks and months to call attention to one thing and another. It means a lot of work for them and some expense to the taxpayer since each proclamation is inscribed on fine parchment and decorated with a gold seal and red ribbons-so the office help is hoping that the custom will get a quick pitch through the nearest open window… However, we implore them to consider the editorial writers of the nation. These are often hard-pressed to find a subject to which they can attach a few bright lines for a break in their commentaries on the miseries of the world. What would they do without Be Kind To Aunt And Uncle Day?” — Spare An Old Custom! St Louis, Missouri: The St Louis Star and Times. Tuesday, 16 October 1945. Page 20, col. 2.

A 1946 newspaper columnist complained about proliferating food days wasting governing officials’ time:

“It won’t be long before a day will have to be set aside entitled “A Day Not to Observe Anything.” The calendar seems to be full of days for this and that. One of the more recent requests was made by the Wisconsin Restaurant association, which plaintively suggested a National Soup Day. Reason: to glorify the Wisconsin pea. Not a bit bashful, the Wisconsin restaurateurs asked President Truman to name split pea soup the national soup and set aside Nov. 15 of each year as national soup day. Can’t you just hear the chicken soup boys and the tomato soup men and the black bean soup addicts screaming “discrimination”? What a problem to be cooked up for a man who is beset with nothing else but problems these days!” — H. L. What’s Cooking: A National Soup Day. Des Moines, Iowa: The Des Moines Register. Sunday, 12 May 1946. Magazine section, page 2, col. 2.

The explosion in awareness and popularity of food days in the late 1990s may have been boosted by the arrival on the scene of e-card websites, who, hungry for occasions to provide their customers to end e-cards (and lure them into upgrading into paid subscription schemes), began promoting food days as a reason to send someone an electronic greeting card. In 2001, a Minneapolis newspaper columnist made a direct association:

“Happy holidays. Maybe it’s the proliferation of e-card Web sites that has made some regular surfers/e-card senders aware of odd so-called holidays. Blue Mountain (http://www.bluemountain.com), for example, has an e-card for almost every important occasion and every not-so-important “holiday”. Need a reason to celebrate? You’re in luck this month. If you missed National Fried Chicken Day (July 6), you’ll want to mark your calendars for these equally important “holidays”: July 18 — Cow Appreciation Day; July 19 — Śtick Your Tongue Out Day; July 21 – National Junk Food Day; July 25 — Threading the Needle Day.” ^[143]FYI Happy Holidays. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Star Tribune. Monday, 16 July 2001. Page E1, col. 5.

Already in 2002, before the onslaught had even really got started, a Wall Street Journal writer was complaining there were too many special days:

“There are simply so many awareness days, that we are no longer aware of them. Which, if you think about it, kind of defeats the purpose… The result of awareness-day fatigue is that some of the more serious groups — those that had previously accomplished some charitable good with awareness days — have thought about getting out.” ^[144]Strassel, Kimberley A. Awareness Daze. New York, NY: The Wall Street Journal. 4 April 2002. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122393192025829999

In 2004, Emily Nunn, food writer for The Chicago Tribune, said the food days were getting out of hand:

“I’ll gladly admit that the food holidays seem to be getting a bit out of hand…” ^[145]Nunn, Emily. Make it stop!

She attributed it to an unimaginative, me-too tendency in the food marketing industry:

“The glut in food holidays can be attributed to… a “lemming mentality” in the food industry. “Everyone wants to be first at being second. Someone with sweet peas might say, “Hey, there’s a Lima Bean Week. We can have a Sweet Pea Week.” ^[146]Nunn, Emily. Make it stop!

In 2009, food writers were again commenting about not only how abundant food holidays were, but also how ludicrous some of them were:

“Is it just me or has the food industry gone crazy over holidays — even the minor ones — during the past couple decades?… Every day of the month is designated, with such days as… Turkey Neck Soup Day.” ^[147]Bradley Litchfield, Robyn. Every day is a holiday for the food industry. Montgomery, Alabama: The Montgomery Advertiser. Wednesday, 11 March 2009. Page C3, col. 1.

James Hamblin, a lecturer at Yale writing for the Atlantic magazine in 2019, warnw that the more absurd fake food holidays there are, the less food holidays in general are going to be worth:

“The more national days, the less value each has. The value proposition is not enhanced by the existence of days such as National Grab Some Nuts Day, National Sneak Some Zucchini Into Your Neighbor’s Porch Day, etc. (All of these are real.) As days lose value, so do the printed calendars and advertising space on the website.” ^[148]Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day.

Since the start of the 1900s, every time food writers have opined that there are “too many food holidays”,  the number of the days has responded by increasing exponentially. Recall that at one point in history, saints’ days became so numerous that the calendar authorities of the time simply designated an “All Saints’ Day” to be done with it. Maybe the same will happen with these fake food holidays — an Eat What You Want Day ^[149]Eat What You Want Day was created by Thomas and Ruth Roy. has already appeared on the horizon. Will grass-roots public boredom with them cause them to fade? Or, will they keep on expanding ad infinitum — not to mention ad absurdum — until the whole concept and industry just implodes? Time will tell!

Further reading

Congressional Research Service. Commemorations in Congress: Options for Honoring Individuals, Groups, and Events.

Sources

Castillo, Michelle. There’s a PR firm behind a lot of the obscure holidays we’re suddenly celebrating. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: CNBC. 14 October 2017. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/where-did-national-dessert-day-come-from.html

Cole, Katharine, host. “The Tyrannical Traditional Table, Fake Food Holidays And The Culinary Class Divide”. The Four Top. Episode 8. 14:05 – 22:05. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.spreaker.com/user/11314936/ep-8-the-tyrannical-traditional-table-fa_1

Criss, Dough. Anyone can make up a holiday. This woman made up 1,900. CNN. 26 February 2018. Accessed October 2021 at https://edition.cnn.com/2018/02/26/us/wacky-holidays-who-creates-them-trnd/index.html

Dose, Emmert. Checking the calendar. Racine, Wisconsin: The Journal Times. 20 September 1986. Page 17, col. 1.

Dougherty, Conor. Need a Reason to Celebrate? Check Online. New York, NY: New York Times. 3 August 2015. Section B, Page 1.

Drickey, Will. Inside The Quirky Marketing Of Obscure Holidays. Pasadena, California: AList. 21 November 2017. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.alistdaily.com/social/obscure-quirky-holidays/

Hamblin, James. The Devastating Truth About National Avocado Day: Why millions of people are extremely eager to celebrate fake holidays sponsored by corporations. Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic. 20 August 2019. Accessed October 2021 at https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2019/08/happy-national-corporate-promotional-day/596443/

Krader, Kate. Why We Keep Getting More Holidays Devoted to Your Favorite Snack. Bloomberg. 17 July 2021. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-17/those-ridiculous-national-food-days-are-good-for-small-business

Lempert, Phil. Food Holidays We Should NOT Be Celebrating. Supermarket Guru Blog. 25 October 2018. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.supermarketguru.com/articles/food-holidays-we-should-not-be-celebrating/

McCullough, J.J. Do we need more fake holidays? CNN. 21 January 2016. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.cnn.com/2016/01/21/opinions/mccullough-why-so-many-holidays/index.html

McNeilly, Claudia. Why national food days are about not much more than doing it for the ‘gram. Toronto, Canada: National Post. 29 June 2017. Accessed December 2021 at https://nationalpost.com/life/food/why-national-food-days-are-about-not-much-more-than-doing-it-for-the-gram

Morita, Ed. National Food Days. Honolulu, Hawaii: Honolulu Magazine. 30 August 2010. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.honolulumagazine.com/national-food-days/

Nunn, Emily. Make it stop! We surrender to the never-ending glut of silly food ‘holidays’. Chicago, Illinois: The Chicago Tribune. Wednesday, 25 August 2004. Page 7-1, col. 1

One Person Decides the National Food Holidays. New York, NY: Inverse Magazine. 6 November 2015. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.inverse.com/article/7854-one-person-decides-the-national-food-holidays

Park, Michael. Here’s Why We Don’t Celebrate National Food Days: A look at how national food days are conceived, created, and made official by various government bodies. New York, NY: Bon Appetit Magazine. 14 July 2014. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.bonappetit.com/entertaining-style/holidays/article/national-food-days

Paulas, Rick. National Food Days Are Not Real Holidays. Los Angeles, California: KCET-TV. 30 September 2015. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.kcet.org/food-discovery/food/national-food-days-are-not-real-holidays

Pierce, Gretchen. Wacky days needed to perk up our weeks. Edmonton, Alberta: The Edmonton Journal. Sunday, 3 February 1985. Page B1, col. 1.

Ransom, Diana. Why the Best Shopping Holiday Is One You Make Up Yourself. Slate Magazine. 28 November 2014. Accessed October 2021 at https://slate.com/business/2014/11/made-up-shopping-holidays-are-best-for-businesses.html

Rombeck, Terry. Lobster, jelly doughnuts and dry martinis among consumables on industry’s quirky holiday calendar. Lawrence, Kansas: Lawrence Journal World. Wednesday, 31 May 2006. Pp 1D, 3D.

Rubin, Julia. The Dubious, Brand-Led Surge of Fake National Holidays. Racked. 18 March 2015. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.racked.com/2015/3/18/8231685/fake-national-holidays

Sazegar, Nicole. Where Did National Food Days Even Come From? Los Angeles, CA: Entity Mag. 20 July 2017. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.entitymag.com/national-food-days/

Severson, Kim. Having a Snack? Make It a Holiday. New York, NY: The New York Times. 30 May 2007. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/dining/30holi.html

Spata, Christopher and Michelle Stark. Ever wonder where all those national food holidays come from? The answer is complicated. Tampa Bay, Florida: The Tampa Bay Times. 15 August 2016. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/food/cooking/ever-wonder-where-all-those-national-food-holidays-come-from-the-answer-is/2289564

Strassel, Kimberley A. Awareness Daze. New York, NY: The Wall Street Journal. 4 April 2002. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB122393192025829999

Sytsma, Alan. It’s Time to End National Food Days. New York, NY: Grub Street. 25 October 2016. Accessed December 2021 at https://www.grubstreet.com/2016/10/its-time-to-end-national-food-days.html

Tuttle, Brad. Meet the Guy Who Totally Makes Up the Fake Holidays We Celebrate. New York, NY: Time Magazine. 17 June 2014. Accessed December 2021 at https://time.com/2891248/fake-holidays-food-splurge-day-marketing/