Weird And Wacky Holidays

Show Notes for Ep19 -National Popcorn Day!Today’s featured holiday is,.. National Popcorn Day. Before reaching into the popcorn box to enjoy a tasty treat of popcorn, let’s have a look at the history of corn.According to a 2012 article in “National Geographic”, people in what is now Peru were producing various corn based foods to include what we now call popcorn 6,700 years ago.“Corn” in Old English refereed to the dominant grain grown in a specific region. The dominant grain grown in what is now known as the Americas was maize. Thus, early settlers referred to maize as “corn”.What we now call popcorn was used to adorn Aztec headdresses worn during ceremonies honoring their god of maize and fertility.Fast forward to the middle 1800s. Popcorn became popular in the U.S., especially after candy store owner Charles Cretors crafted a steam driven machine to more easily pop corn. By the turn of the century, Cretors had horse-drawn wagons plying Chicago streets selling popcorn.Cretors wasn’t the only purveyor of pop