Pudding Season begins on October 1st. Start it off with this delicious butterscotch pudding recipe from chocolatier Michael Recchiuti. Photo by Duard van der Westhuizen | IST.
Last Updated October 2025
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National Food Holidays: October
And You Thought Halloween Was The Big Event!
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As the days get shorter, you won’t even notice...you’ll be too busy planning parties to celebrate these momentous occasions. Some encourage month-long festivities:
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Variable date celebrations:
- National Baking Week, 2nd week in October [U.K.]
- National Fruit At Work Day 1st
Tuesday
- National Taco Day, 1st Tuesday‡‡‡‡
- National Curry Week, 1st Week
- National Kale Day, 1st Wednesday
- National Pumpkin Seed Day,1st Wednesday
- National Chili Week,1st Week
- National Dessert Day, 2nd Thursday
- American Beer Week, 2nd Week*
- National Pinotage Day, 2nd Saturday
- National Food Bank Week, 2nd Week
- National School Lunch Week, 2nd Week
- National Sauerkraut Day, 2nd Wednesday
- World Egg Day, 2nd Friday
- National Bulk Foods Week, 3rd Week
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The rest of October’s line-up includes:
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October 4th is National Taco Day. Make these delicious braised beef tacos with mole sauce. Photo courtesy McCormick. |
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October 17th is National Pasta Day. Treat yourself to some Fettuccine Alfredo. Here’s the recipe. |
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October 18th is National Chocolate Cupcake Day. Here’s a recipe for dark chocolate cupcakes. |
*There are 14 American-beer-specific holidays. Here they are.
**National Smoothie Day is June 21st.
***You may or may not want to give some people credit for coming up with these holidays. This one recognizes the terror of coming across old, moldy food in the fridge. October 30 is variously called other names, depending on the region: Cabbage Night, Devil’s Night, Gate Night, Goosey Night, Mat Night (from a Quebec tradition of stealing door mats), Mischief Night, Mystery Night, and Night Of The Devil. So, among these terrors, take some time to investigate any lurking dangers lying in wait at the back of your fridge.
***Another canning holiday: International Can It Forward Day is August 1st.
†National Food Day was launched in 1975 by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) in an attempt to create an event similar to Earth Day to raise awareness about the increasing industrialization of American agriculture, rising food prices, hunger, and the American diet and health crisis
†Similar sandwich holidays: May 5th is National Hoagie Day. November 4th is National Submarine Sandwich Day. Someone decided that we needed a National Eat A Hoagie Day on September 14th and Submarine-Hoagie-Grinder Day on October 9th.
††National Southern Food Day is January 22nd.
†††More gin holidays: National Gin & Tonic Day is April 19th, and International Gin & Tonic Day is October 19th. World Gin Day is June 15th.
‡More taco holidays: January 25th is National Fish Taco Day, March 21st is National Crunchy Taco Day, March 31st is Día del Taco (in Mexico), and October 4th is National Taco Day. Not to mention Taco Tuesdays.
‡‡National Eat Your Noodles Day is March 11th.
‡‡‡Persimmons and rhizomes: You may also find mention of a National Rhizomes & Persimmons Month. Some people like to initiate weird holidays for their amusement. We think this is one of them and not a real, i.e., registered, holiday. A persimmon is not a rhizome but a tree fruit. It is a fruit from the Diospyros tree, classified as a berry. A rhizome is a completely different classification, a horizontal underground stem that sends out shoots to produce new plants. Examples of rhizomes are arrowroot, bamboo, ginger, lotus root, taro, turmeric, wild yams, numerous flowers and ferns, and—surprise—bananas!
‡‡‡‡Taco Day Moved: In 2024, National Taco Day was moved to the first Tuesday in October so it would always fall on a Taco Tuesday. Taco Tuesday.
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