Celebrate Every Day

Welcome to November 28, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate the Festival of Lights and reclaiming lost bread.

This evening kicks off Chanukah, the Jewish festival of lights. During the time of Alexander the Great, Jewish culture began to blend with Greek culture in a mostly peaceful relationship. That is until Antiochus IV desecrated the Jewish Holy Temple. When the Israelites rededicated the Second Temple in Jerusalem, there was only enough oil to keep the lamps lit for one night, but instead, the oil lasted for 8. Chanukah celebrates this miracle with 8 nights of observance. In the evening, families light the menorah, adding one candle each night until all 9 candles are glowing on the last day. They exchange gifts, and share foods that commemorate this event. On the first day of Chanukah, we share in the spirit of miracles and embrace the ones we love.

Today we celebrate a favorite breakfast food that goes by many names. Best known as French toast, it's actually not French at all. The first known recipe dates all the way back to the 5th century AD. That’s when the Romans whipped up eggs and milk, dipped in bread and fried it in oil or butter. And the recipe has remained more or less the same ever since. It was later called “poor knights” in Germany and “eggy bread” in England. And in France the name is “pain perdu” which means lost bread. What a perfect description for the magical transformation of stale bread into a golden toasted perfection. Try it with cinnamon and whipped cream, fruit or syrup and lots of melted butter. On National French Toast Day, celebrate this breakfast favorite with any name you please!

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to November 27, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate protein on the go and supporting the small guys.

The preservation of meat by smoking or drying has been around for a very long time. Evidence of meat jerky is even found in the tombs of ancient Egypt. And this makes sense when you realize that refrigeration has only been around a relatively short while. But today we celebrate the artisanal flair of the folks who produce craft jerky with everything from elk to buffalo and even soybeans and mushrooms. Your taste buds may only be geared for the traditional beef kind originally produced by the South American tribes of the Andes. On National Craft Jerky Day prepare your palate for something savory and something more adventurous if you dare.

Small Business Saturday reminds us of the prime shopping opportunities right in our own backyards. These places offer lots of gift-giving possibilities with hands-on service and quality, thoughtful gifts. Small businesses feed our communities. They keep our main streets thriving and employ nearly half of the American workforce. You’ll feel good knowing that your holiday shopping puts food on the tables of the folks you know. And plenty of the people on your list prefer handmade items anyway! Don’t hesitate to browse a small business website as well as the traditional brick and mortar kind. You may be surprised to discover just what you’ve been looking for. On Small Business Saturday, celebrate the moms and pops who put the fun and goodwill back into the season of giving.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to November 26, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate expensive cakes and being in the black

Yesterday on Thanksgiving, pie got its time in the spotlight. But most people prefer cake. Like the man from the United Arab Emirates who purchased a custom-made cake for his daughter’s birthday. And it was expensive. Very expensive. The cake cost—you may want to sit down for this one—$75 million. Debbie Wingham, a British designer, created a replica of a fashion show, complete with a runway, models, and audience. The cake was about 2 meters long and took 1,100 hours to complete. Premium ingredients, gemstones, and handmade outfits for the tiny figures drove the price into the stratosphere. On National Cake Day, celebrate with a cheaper version that lets you have your cake and eat it too!

Brace yourself for the start of the Christmas shopping season. Here comes Black Friday! Shopping today is hectic, but certainly not awful, so why does it have such a bleak name? Turns out that the phrase Black Friday was first used in 1869, when plummeting gold prices crashed the market. It was also used by traffic police in the 1950s to describe the surge in traffic jams caused by post holiday shoppers. The silver lining explanation goes something like this. Through most of the year, retailers are losing money, which is known as “being in the red.” When Christmas shopping starts, sales go way up, and they’re “in the black.” No matter how you see it, Black Friday is a great day to find amazing deals on gifts for friends and family.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to November 25, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate a perfect dessert and a meal that brings us together.

Parfait literally means “perfect” in French. The dessert has a lot to live up to with a name like that. But it does. And then some. Layers of ice cream, fruit, syrups, and whipped cream? It sounds like a fancy version of a sundae, but really…What’s not to like? It’s dessert heaven. To paraphrase Donkey from Shrek: Nobody has ever been asked if they want some parfait and said “Heck no, I don't like parfait.” Parfait's may be the most delicious thing on the whole planet! But seriously, grab yourself a glass and start layering the toppings. It’s just good enough that you may wanna start every day by celebrating National Parfait Day.

Sarah Hale is not someone most of us know by name, but she contributed two significant things to American culture. First, she was the author of the classic nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb. Second, and more importantly, she played a key role in our celebration of Thanksgiving. In 1862, she wrote to President Lincoln, asking him to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. Though he didn't respond for another year, in the midst of the Civil War, Lincoln fulfilled her request. He declared the holiday, asking Americans to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer. Today we carry on that tradition in many different ways but Thanksgiving Day is still an opportunity to bring family and friends together in the spirit of gratitude.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to November 24, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate new found hobbies and rocking around the clock.

As a teen, Samuel Langhorne Clemens worked as a river pilot on the Mississippi River. All the while, he was writing. When the American Civil War brought trade to a halt, he went after his passion. You probably know Mr. Clemens better as Mark Twain, which is actually a nautical term that means the water is deep enough to navigate safely. Sounds like an odd pen name, but that sums up his writing style—smart, quirky, and utterly unexpected. With novels like Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain established his place as one of the greatest American authors of all time. November is National Novel Writing Month, a great time to put pen to paper and start writing that book you may already have in your head.

When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in the late 1800s, the machines were far too expensive for most people to own. So businesses opened listening parlors, where people could pay a nickel to listen to a song. These machines came to be known as nickelodeons. The cool thing about them was that you could listen with friends as each nickelodeon was equipped with 4 listening horns. Eventually, these machines were able to play multiple records and were designed with amplifiers. The enduring appeal of the jukebox is that music is fun, but when you share it with friends who are home for the holidays it could become your new favorite tradition. On National Jukebox Day, drop a few coins in the machine and dance the night away. There's always tomorrow for cooking the turkey.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to November 23, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate toxic nuts and intoxicating drinks.

When it comes to nuts, cashews are in a class of their own. You’ll find them in any can of mixed nuts, but they’re not exactly like the others. Their unique half moon shape makes them stand out from peanuts, walnuts, and almonds. And unlike pistachios, you’ll never see cashews in a shell. That’s because cashew shells are highly toxic to humans and can cause rashes similar to poison ivy. It makes you wonder what unlucky person first tried to eat one. Cashews are found deep inside a fruit called a cashew apple and once they are removed from this covering, they’re not only edible, they are delicious. On National Cashew Day celebrate this nut that stands out from the rest.

The Italian word espresso means ‘quick in time.’ In the coffee houses and cafes of the late 1800s this simply meant a coffee made expressly for the person ordering it with freshly roasted and ground coffee beans. Then in 1901 it all changed. Luigi Bezzera invented the modern espresso machine which brewed a smaller, more concentrated cup even faster than other methods. With it came an intoxicating layer of creamy foam on the top known as crema. For coffee drinkers this is the holy grail of flavor. It’s the secret behind delicious coffee creations from lattes to cappuccinos. It’s also preferred by bakers for the true coffee flavor it adds to cheesecakes, ice cream and tiramisu. On National Espresso Day, espresso your own love for coffee made “quick in time."

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to November 22, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate spicing things up and a sauce with pucker power.

When you think of peppers, you probably think of spicy foods. And while that’s true, there are many varieties of pepper. Like the bell pepper, a mild version. These colorful fruits—yes, peppers are fruits—have more vitamin C than oranges and they’re chock full of vitamin A. Also, red, green, and yellow peppers…they’re all the same thing. Their colors indicate different levels of ripeness. But of course, there are spicy peppers too, like the habanero or the Carolina Reaper. If for some reason you bite into one of these fiery peppers, don’t reach for a glass of water. That’ll only make things worse. Grab a glass of milk or some ice cream to cool the heat. November is National Pepper Month, a time to test your tolerance for kicking up the heat!

While cranberry relish is a staple on the Thanksgiving table, we can be fairly certain it wasn’t part of the first Thanksgiving meal. The cranberry relish we know and love originated in the early 1900s. Marcus Urann, a New England lawyer, bought a cranberry bog in 1912 and later formed the company Ocean Spray. He found that fresh cranberries had a short shelf life and the window for harvesting and selling them was relatively small. The canning process delivered a solution to extend their marketability and 100 years later we still enjoy this sweet tart flavor. While plenty of folks like to spice up their own recipe from fresh cranberries, the jiggly kind that comes in a can is a perennial favorite. On National Cranberry Relish Day, sauce it up anyway you please.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to November 21, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate the one that almost got away and being a good neighbor.

Cookies are delicious, but they’re usually pretty standard when it comes to shape. Most are round. Some are square. But there’s only one that almost exclusively comes in human form—the gingerbread man. So how did this cute little cookie come to be? Surprisingly, we have Queen Elizabeth I to thank for this sweet creation. When she had a royal banquet, she instructed her baker to decorate the gingerbread to look like the world leaders and dignitaries in attendance. This was so popular that the idea made its way to the masses and—voila—a tradition was born. Now that’s food for thought! On National Gingerbread Cookie Day, run, run, as fast as you can and catch one of these tasty little guys.

Get ready for Canadian Olympic pride with National Red Mitten Day! Hudson’s Bay Company founded this day in 2017 to encourage support for Canadian athletes by wearing their red mittens. To date this iconic trend has raised tens of millions of dollars for the Canadian Olympic Foundation thanks to the generous donation from each mitten sale by the Hudson’s Bay Company. The fundraiser began in 2010 when Canada hosted the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. That year Canada received a record number of medals and a new symbol for Canadian Olympic pride was born. Why invest in our competitor’s athletes you ask? Because cheering on our neighbors with cheery, red mittens is just good sportsmanship.

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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Welcome to November 20, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate kids and the games for kids at heart.

While not everyone becomes a parent, most of us have some effect on the children around us and today we focus on some important things to remember about early childhood development. From the time they are born babies spend 60 percent of their energy on brain development. In fact the human brain grows so quickly that if the rest of a newborn's body grew at that rate it would weigh 170 pounds after only one month. And while most parents understand their role as their child's first teacher, it's also important to see the bigger picture. Because all caregivers affect the development of a child it's important to remember that it takes a village. On National Child’s Day we honor our children and celebrate those who make a difference to them every day.

As we gather together with our families next week, we can be sure of a few things, we will eat too much and someone will stir up a family ruckus. It’s time to plan ahead, not only for Thanksgiving dinner, but also for what to do before and after the feast is served. Games bring people together, which is exactly what this holiday is about. Yes, there may be some arguments, but it’s better to scrap over who owns Park Place than so many other things. Puzzles can keep the brain occupied, even through a carb induced fog. If you have something for everyone on hand your dinner is bound to go smoothly. Even with a house full of kids at heart. Next week is National Games and Puzzles Week, an easy and fun way to keep things light, while dinner does the heavy lifting.

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Welcome to November 19, 2021 on the National Day Calendar. Today we celebrate catching a bubbly buzz and some friendly competition.

Here in North America more than 90 percent of us enjoy caffeine every single day. But not all of us enjoy tea or coffee. The rest of us can thank a German Chemist who first isolated caffeine from coffee beans in 1819. Man-made carbonation was first discovered by Joseph Priestly in an English brewery and folks began using it for medicinal tonics that later became known as sodas. Today this method of infusing water with carbon dioxide is more popular than ever thanks to the addition of caffeine. On National Carbonated Beverage With Caffeine Day, we celebrate the satisfying combination that most of us could not do without.

Have you ever wondered why the playing pieces for Monopoly are so random? You can thank a bunch of kids for that. The classic board game Monopoly was invented in the 1930s by Charles Darrow and based on the properties and street names of Atlantic City, New Jersey. When it came to the playing pieces, he asked his nieces for help. And they picked through metal charms from a bracelet to create the bizarre collection that includes an iron, a race car, a thimble, and a top hat. Little did they know how many people would fight over the race car over the years. On National Play Monopoly Day, you may enjoy an overly competitive game, just don’t forget the spirit of fun for which it was invented!

I’m Anna Devere and I’m Marlo Anderson. Thanks for joining us as we Celebrate Every Day.

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