national Archives - Page 14 of 31 - Worldwide Weird Holidays

August 3 is National Watermelon Day

August 3, 2017/0 Comments/in August

2016 Watermelon Queen Carla Penney

Today is National Watermelon Day. It closely follows July’s Watermelon Month, established in 2009 by a unanimous U.S. Congressional Joint Resolution.

Today’s holiday is sponsored by the National Watermelon Promotion Board (NWPB), an organization whose strategic mission is to increase consumer demand in the U.S., Canada and Mexico while working to develop trade with England and Japan.

NWPB raises funds by charging U.S. producers and handlers three cents per hundredweight of watermelons intended for human consumption. Importers pay six cents per hundredweight.

Its Board of Directors decides how best to spend those fees to secure high-value print, television and radio publicity. It is dedicated to expanding watermelon’s summertime appeal to make it an everyday, year-round choice for consumers.

Another group supporting today’s holiday is the National Watermelon Association (NWA), which welcomes all who work in the industry to join one of nine regional chapters. Its website has information on everything from creating attractive in-store displays to factoring climate change into crop planning.

Since 1964, NWA has crowned a National Watermelon Queen, who is trained to serve as a spokeswoman and ambassador, promoting sales and consumption of the fruit. The 2016 Queen was Carla Lynn Penney; as one of her duties, she appeared at the February 2017 National Watermelon Association Convention in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Fun!

This holiday has made us appreciate the watermelon as more than just that thing we buy when we’re feeling nostalgic, lug home, resent for taking up half of the fridge, never cut into because it seems like too much work and finally throw out, vowing not to buy one ever again. Maybe this time will be different!

Happy National Watermelon Day!

August 2 is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day

August 2, 2017/0 Comments/in August

Jersey Shore circa 1905

Today is National Ice Cream Sandwich Day.

According to Geraldine Quinzio, author of Sugar and Snow: A History of Ice Cream Making, the ice cream sandwich was invented in 1899 by a pushcart peddler in New York City. It consisted of vanilla ice cream pressed between two thin graham crackers.

In July of 1900, The New York Tribune reported that the vendor was so busy making the sandwiches that he didn’t have time to make change and required all customers to pay exactly one penny.

The photograph you see here was taken at the New Jersey shore in 1905 and shows a popular pushcart on the beach. Supposedly, the modern iteration of the sandwich using rectangular chocolate cookies was created in 1945 by Jerry Newberg, who sold them at Forbes Field, in Pittsburgh, PA.

Here are a few of the “fun facts” quoted everywhere from blogs to news outlets today:

It’s estimated that 48 ice cream sandwiches are consumed per second in the United States.
If all the ice cream sandwiches made during the year were placed end to end, they would circle the globe 3 1/2 times.
Almost 50 percent of all ice cream sandwiches are consumed by residents of states on the Eastern seaboard.

We don’t know this trivia’s original source but we’ve tracked it back to a newspaper article dated December 21, 1995. We hope someone will freshen up those stale statistics. Inquiring minds want to know how many times ice cream sandwiches would wrap around the planet now.

Other versions of the ice cream sandwich have been created all over the world, many predating the American kind. We’ll leave that debate to the food historians.

Happy National Ice Cream Sandwich Day!

National Intern Day

July 26, 2017/1 Comment/in July

National Intern Day, celebrated on the last Thursday in July, recognizes the hard work and dedication of interns across the country. It was created in 2017 by WayUp, a unique platform that connects college students and recent grads with job opportunities and career advice.

The task of getting an internship has always been a difficult one, often dependent on luck or “who you know.” Most people just starting out don’t have access to traditional on-campus recruiting services.

WayUp, the brainchild of CEO Liz Wessel, has democratized and streamlined the process, introducing a single common form which makes it easy to apply for jobs and helps prospective employers find candidates and set up interviews. To date, more than 3.5 million students and recent grads have become users of WayUp to connect with startups, local businesses and Fortune 500 companies that are hiring.

It’s only fitting that WayUp would seek to acknowledge the bright young people who help make the venture a success. Companies are encouraged to submit nominations for its Intern Awards, which will reward outstanding interns in six areas of expertise. Businesses that visit the holiday’s website and pledge to observe National Intern Day will receive a free kit with information and materials to hold their own in-office intern celebration.

As WayUp grows exponentially, it still has a sense of humor. We noticed this in the Frequently Asked Questions:

Do I need a picture?
A profile picture is not mandatory, but according to industry standards it increases your chances of getting hired by 14x. That does NOT, however, include the following: selfies, awkward pictures taken against white walls, or pictures where a red cup has been cropped out.

Sage advice! Happy National Intern Day!

National Day of the Cowboy

July 22, 2017/1 Comment/in July

Today is the National Day of the Cowboy, always observed on the fourth Saturday of July. On March 18, 2016, Idaho became the 11th state to pass a law recognizing the holiday.

The National Day of the Cowboy Organization created this day in 2005 to acknowledge the contributions of the cowboy (and cowgirl) to the history of America.

Celebrate today by watching a classic Western movie, taking in a rodeo, putting on a pair of boots and kicking up your heels or learning how to throw a lasso.

Have a happy National Day of the Cowboy!

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