Opinion
A surprise holiday to brighten the last week of school
December 16, 2011
When you think of holidays in the month of December, the ones that generally come to mind are St. Nick’s Day and Christmas. Well, I am here to tell you about a December holiday which you have probably never heard of, but could quickly become one of your favorites.
Dec. 16, is National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day. Yes, you did read that right. So for those of you who think you need an excuse to pig out on various chocolate items, today is your day. Chocolate covered raisins, chocolate covered potato chips, chocolate covered candy canes or anything else that floats your boat. Well, not anything. I would advise against eating chocolate covered insects, but only because Oct. 14 is National Chocolate-Covered Insects Day. You wouldn’t want to ruin that holiday by covering insects in chocolate today.
The history of this wonderful holiday is relatively unknown. Amongst all of the research I did I found that some candy company probably created the holiday for the obvious purpose of selling more candy. Regardless of its origins, Chocolate Covered Anything Day is sure to be a favorite of all who know about it.
Chocolate Covered Anything Day also conveniently falls on the last day of classes for this semester. What better way to celebrate having no more classes, other than those pesky finals, than to cover your favorite food in chocolate? If you have ever wondered what pizza, for example, tastes like covered in chocolate, today is the day for you to find out. Maybe, instead of experimenting, you would rather go with the delicious, but very unhealthy, route of smothering ice cream in chocolate. I’m sure that would be positively delicious.
For those of you who don’t like chocolate, for whatever reason, don’t worry because this is another holiday celebration going on today as well. Aside from being National Chocolate-Covered Anything Day it is also Barbie and Barney Backlash Day. Yes, I’m serious. So if you have anything against Barbara Millicent Roberts or the purple dinosaur known as Barney, today is your day to rant and rave. Maybe you were traumatized as a kid by a large talking dinosaur or the fact that Barbie was in your face 24/7 on TV commercials. Today is your day to retaliate.
So whether you enjoy chocolate covered foods or have an immense hatred for children’s heroes, or both, today should be a great day. What better way to celebrate your last day of classes than celebrating two of the best unknown holidays in America.
Benjamin Lamers is an alumnus of UW-River Falls. He was editor of the Student Voice during fall semester 2013.