Top Ten Food-Related Holidays

Food days are incredible - they give locally owned diners a reason to stock up on something - and the rest of us a reason to stuff ourselves full of that. In the United States, National Ice Cream Day is the third Sunday of July. International Hamburger Day is May 28, while September 8 is National Cheeseburger Day in the US.

But wait, there’s more - not only are there days devoted to the food, but the United States has days devoted to doing things with those foods, even against some foods.

10. July 15 - National Gummi Worm Day

A movie theater favorite - the too-small box of regular or sour gummi worms to accompany the soda and popcorn on the opening night of your most anticipated summer film.

If you’re lucky, you can celebrate the opening night of your most anticipated summer film AND celebrate National Gummi Worm Day on July 15.

But only if you’re lucky. If you’re not, and you want it to be the best National Gummi Worm Day in recent history (though it’d have to be pretty recent because Trolli has only been making gummi worms since 1981) you can spring for the big kahuna of gummi worms by picking up the world’s largest gummi worm for only $32 on Amazon.

9. November 8 - Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day

Don’t let the name discourage you - pungent can be a good thing.

By the time this holiday rolls around, you’re starting to stay in the house more. Maybe you’ve even stopped cutting the grass. Your garden is on its way out - maybe you’ve even gotten your first snow.

Just because you can’t go outside and be bold with summery colors and foods doesn’t mean you have to give up being bold for the fall. That’s what Cook Something Bold and Pungent Day is for. Created by Tom Roy and his wife, everyone is encouraged to cook boldly and pungently.

The bland might ask, “How can I be bold? How can I be pungent?”

A good place to start is by making a big pot of chili, starting with a basic chili recipe and adding all sorts of scary looking peppers, lots of garlic, lots of onions, and other aromatic vegetables.

Don’t care for chili? Prefer fish over beef? Try ginger chili citrus salmon to get some kick into your diet on November 8.

8. April 17 - National Cheeseball Day

No, not the little Utz cheeseballs - actual balls of cheese you might see during holidays with your family, were too afraid to try as a child, but look forward to as an adult.

The likely origin of this holiday is the legend of Elisha Brown Jr., who pressed the very first cheeseball in Cheshire, Massachusetts, and sent the 1,000 pound monstrosity to President Thomas Jefferson in 1801.

So, if you’re looking to celebrate this holiday in a ballsy way, try these popular recipes:

Three-Cheese Ball

My Sister’s Spicy Cheese Ball

Smoky Cheese Ball

If you can manage to get the right proportions to make any of those balls 1,000lbs, you’ll really be celebrating in the true cheeseball fashion.

7. July 4 - National Barbecue Day

It’s Independence Day! What better way to celebrate than a barbecue and fireworks? Throw a beer in and you’ve got an American trifecta of independence.

What’s the best way to celebrate National Barbecue Day? Burgers. Lots of burgers. Eighty-five percent of things cooked on a grill are burgers, with steaks in a close second with 80%. Just after that, it’s hot dogs in third place with 79% and chicken in fourth with 73%.

6. February 9 - National Pizza Day

Don’t confuse this day with September 5, National Cheese Pizza Day, or November 12, National Pizza Day with the Works Except Anchovies Day. February 9 is National Pizza Day - any kind of pizza you want. Most popular kind of pizza on National Pizza Day is pepperoni, then Italian sausage, and next mushroom.

If you think National Pizza Day is the most popular day to eat pizza, you’re wrong. Super Bowl Sunday, New Year’s Eve, Halloween, the day before Thanksgiving, and New Year’s Day are the most popular days to eat pizza in the United States.

5. October 30 - Haunted Refrigerator Night

Don’t have any plans for the Halloween season? Looking to get scared by something right inside your house?

This holiday doesn’t encourage you to eat a specific food, but instead seek out that one piece of tupperware you’ve needed the last couple weeks, but haven’t used before something evil and probably three weeks old is lurking in it down on the bottom shelf of your refrigerator, behind those leftovers you’ve neglected to bring to work a couple days in a row and that one weird juice you decided to try, don’t like, but feel too guilty to throw away because it was too expensive to begin with.

This holiday makes you tackle that monster you’ve created by neglecting it. Maybe it was lasagna? Stir fry? There’s no telling what it was, but we know what it is now.

It’s terrifying. And it’s something scary to do before your leave for a Halloween party.

PS: This holiday is not to be confused with November 29, Throw Out Your Leftovers Day, though both can be celebrated in the same year without dangerous repercussions.

4. August 28 - Crackers over the Keyboard Day

Have you ever been cleaning your keyboard, flipped it over, and found an embarrassingly large and old collection of cookie and chip crumbs?

You’re not alone, and after you did that, you probably made an effort to clean all of crumbs off your fingers before replacing them to your QWERTY.

Well, Tom Roy and his wife have thrown caution to the wind with this holiday. Have you conformed to the masses and stopped eating crumbly things over your keyboard? Well, on August 28, you can do it as much as you want. Why? Because there’s a holiday to celebrate it.

Tom Roy and his wife have actually suggested doing this at work, in an effort to “Show ‘em you’re still a freethinker.”

3. July 1 - National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day

Does anyone really enjoy just vanilla ice cream? Or just chocolate ice cream?

No.

When you go to Coldstone, you order an ice cream with lots of junk in it, maybe even things you would have never considered putting in ice cream before. In fact, going to Coldstone and ordering a bunch of additives you might not have considered before is probably a good way to celebrate National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day.

If you’re into making your own ice cream, you’ve got even more leeway. Do you have a good strawberry ice cream recipe? Throw some rhubarb in that and get creative. Doesn’t sound good? Maybe you’d prefer the duck fat caramel soy sauce ice cream. You’ll find something.

Beyond just making new flavors, National Ice Cream Flavor Day can also be celebrated by making ice cream sandwiches that you might not have considered delicious before - like lemon basil chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches.

You’ll find a way to celebrate - the instructions are in the name of the day: get creative.

2. May 11 - National Eat What You Want Day

The ultimate punch in the face for dieters and anyone interested in specific foods holiday. However, this is probably the best food holiday for picky eaters.

This holiday doesn’t mean gorge yourself - but it does mean that you should eat something you want that you haven’t been able to recently. Tom Roy and his wife created this holiday to encourage you to enjoy yourself.

How do you celebrate this one?

Go to the grocery store and those things you’ve given up for the healthier version or just a healthier alternative - buy them and devour them.

Don’t want to buy a box of Gushers because you’re in your late twenties and you’ve just begun settling down and you can’t revert back to your 8 year old self? Ignore that. Buy the Gushers and eat the whole box in one sitting.

1. August 8 - National Sneak a Zucchini onto Someone’s Porch Day

That’s where the zucchinis come in - not into you, into your body via your mouth, but instead onto your porch, preferably snuck there by some sneaky zucchini master.

So, why the holiday?

Well, if you’re a gardener who’s planted zucchini, you probably know how incredibly easy they are to grow, and how easy it is to end up with way too much zucchini. What are you supposed to do with all that extra zucchini? Zucchini doesn’t freeze well, so you can’t even prepare for National Zucchini bread day for the next year on April 25. There’s only so much zucchini bread you can make right now and only so many zucchini lasagnas you can bake.

Pennsylvanian Tom Roy came up with the solution: make a holiday devoted to getting rid of the excess zucchini.

Why not knock on the door or ring the doorbell with a bundle of zucchinis? Because your neighbors have stopped answering.

Instead of being polite about it, just sneak a basket or bag of zucchini right onto their porch.

And they should count themselves lucky to have such a gracious neighbor. Why?

You’re just ensuring they get all the folate, potassium, vitamin A, and manganese they need daily.

So, this August, why not leave a bag of zucchinis on your neighbor’s porch in the name of Tom Roy and his wife - the geniuses who gave us the holiday to get rid of our zucchinis guilt-free: “National Sneak a Zucchini onto Someone’s Porch Day.”