A recent ad in an insert in a local
paper announced that September 20 is National String Cheese Day. String Cheese? Seriously?
I could believe National Cheese Day (June 4). Or even National
Cream Cheese Day (none, not even for Bagels and Cream Cheese, although Cream Cheese
Brownies Day is February 10). But String Cheese? I don’t think so.
Contrived holidays used to be made up
by greeting card manufacturers, so they were mostly sentimental ones. When did
the food industries hop on this bandwagon? And why? What are we supposed to do
on National String Cheese Day, other than eat more of it? Will there be
contests to see who can stretch the longest string? Will there be String Cheese
Festivals, full of clowns with sticks up their noses or in their ears? Will we have String
Cheese eating contests, like the hot dog ones, but without the buns?
I did some quick research and was
amazed at the number of food-related holidays in the United States alone. They
went on for pages. Here are just some that involve cheese. For a complete list,
go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_food_days#United_States.
We have Cheese Fondue, Grilled
Cheese Sandwich, and even Cheeseball Days. Those are all in April. Then there’s
Cheesecake Day, and of course Mac & Cheese Day (July 14), and even a Cheese
Pizza Day (September 5). National Double Cheeseburger and Cheese Toast Days are
both on my birthday, making for a cholesterol-laden double whammy.
I’m marking my calendar for the
foodie days that will tickle my taste buds. On the first Saturday of February
next year, I’ll be celebrating National Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. On March
5, I’ll surround myself with several bags of Cheez Doodles. I’ll mark National
Schlumpia Day on May 24, if I can find out what Schlumpias are by then; they
certainly sound like fun.
I considered putting National
Tapioca Day on my list (June 28), since my husband would certainly join in that
celebration. But then I saw that Tapioca Pudding has its own day on July 15. Too
confusing. Besides, I’d prefer National Rice Pudding Day. Or Crème Brûlée or Flan. None
of those made the list I was using, but Rice Balls did. Go figure. (What is a Rice Ball, anyway?)
Another surprising omission from
the list is National Peeps Day. I’d put that on my calendar in a heartbeat.
Maybe it was left off because Peeps is a brand. But then, so is Cheez Doodles,
and it's on the list. I searched for Peeps Day separately and found several
possibilities. One is the day after Easter, which sounds right. That would make
it a floating holiday. True Peeps lovers know that any day you can find a box
of those chicks after Easter is a Peeps Day.
I noticed that November 15 is
earmarked Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. But it’s not until November 29 that
we get Throw Out Your Leftovers. That sounds like poor planning to me. I
wouldn’t want the stuff I cleaned out of the fridge stinking up our kitchen for two weeks. Besides, November 29 is also National Chocolates Day. It’s a no brainer
which one will go on my calendar.
The last three holidays listed for
December are quite predictable. The 27th is National Fruitcake Day.
My mother made wonderful fruitcakes, by the way. The 30th is
National Bicarbonate of Soda Day. (That might have been better for the day after
Thanksgiving.) And December 31st is National Champagne Day. Or
night, more likely.
Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I
think holidays should be reserved for the things in our lives that deserve to
be celebrated. It’s great that we have not just Mothers Day and Fathers
Day, but also Grandparents Day. (Great Aunts Day would be a nice addition.) The
major holidays that match various liturgical calendars are fine by me. But—no
disrespect to Druids and Wiccans, we don’t need to promote a Summer Solstice
Day. And we certainly didn’t need a National String Cheese Day.
