Waffle Day
© Denzil Green
The 25th of March is Waffle Day.
If you have a Waffle Iron languishing somewhere in the kitchen, attic or basement, haul it out. Even if this is a weekday and you don’t have time to make them — let alone eat them — until the weekend, you can dust it off, track down a recipe and make a shopping list so you can make them on the weekend — or take your Waffle Iron to the office. Or, you can resort to frozen, or suss out a place that is civilized enough to offer them as part of a weekday brunch near lunch time.
Waffle Day originated in Sweden, where it’s called “Våffeldagen” (Waffle Day.) It’s also Lady Day, the day when the Virgin Mary was informed by the Archangel Gabriel that she was pregnant.
A dissenting point of view
Some say the 25th of March date should be treated as “International Waffle Day” and 24th August as American Waffle Day.
The reason for that is that some Americans advocate for the 24th August because it was on that day in 1869 that Cornelius Swarthout of Troy, New York received American patent #94,043 for “a new and useful Improvement in Waffle-Irons.” Considering how many “new and useful Improvements” must have taken place in Waffle Irons over the centuries (we know they were being used as early as the 1300s), focussing on one improvement just because it was the first American improvement does seem a little over the top, even for America. That aside, the 24th August is really only an “artificial day”, promoted now and then by restaurants and radio personalities, whereas the 25th March has a solid footing in historical practice. Consequently, CooksInfo.com throws its backing behind the Swedish inspired March date, if only because America already got to name a plethora of days such Tapioca Day, Tortilla Chip Day and Coffee Cake Day. It’s only fair to let someone else in on the food days.
A 5th August date is also bandied about by some, but it has no solid backing, and is generally regarded as a typo that has been perpetuated.