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| The Real History of Sweetest Day: | |||
| http://web.mac.com/miracleimpulse/iWeb/Site%203/Sweetest%20Day%20Slideshow.html | |||
Revision as of 20:20, 26 May 2006
Sweetest Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the Midwestern U.S. states of Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. It is celebrated on the third Saturday in the month of October.
The holiday is said to have begun in the city of Cleveland, Ohio in 1922. During America's Great Depression, candy store employee Herbert Birch Kingston put together a group of citizens to provide small gifts to homeless people, orphans, and others who had fallen on hard times. This tradition now seems to largely involve giving small presents, such as cards, candy and flowers, to family, friends, and lovers.
With Mother's Day and Father's Day firmly established, proposals for other holidays began to pour forth from all quarters. A waggish correspondent to the New York Times argued in 1914, his tongue firmly in his cheek, for the establishment of Maiden Aunty's Day, Household Pet Day, and Slush Day. Two years later, the National Confectioners' Association quite seriously suggested the creation of Candy Day, to be celebrated the second Sunday of October by, naturally enough, giving gifts of candy. But folks simply didn't take to Candy Day, and by 1923 the confectioners were forced to admit that the public, while gullible, indeed had its limits. "Are enthusiastic over a holiday that has for its avowed purpose the sale of candy?" asked the trade journal Candy Factory. Its answer, a classic of understatement, was "we are inclined to think ... they are not." But the Confectioners' Association did not give up easily. It merely renamed the would-be holiday Sweetest Day, moved it to the third Saturday in October, and continued its promotion. Though it didn't turn into a cash cow of Valentine's Day proportions, it is still a profitable industry event celebrated in parts of the United States, despite persistent allegations of being a Hallmark holiday.
In 2005 Sweetest Day was Saturday, October 15.
In 2006 Sweetest Day will be Saturday, October 21.