Mark your calendars!
Americans love pizza. So much so that we've got a whole month for it (October), a completely separate National Pizza Week (which starts the second Sunday in January), and roughly a dozen different national pizza days. As many pizza restaurants will run promotions (or even give freebies!) during these national days, it's a good idea to mark them in your calendar.
For example, visiting our friends at Crush Pizza + Tap for National Deep Dish Pizza Day means enjoying some awesome prices on deep dish pizzas! Meanwhile, visiting Smokin' Oak Wood-Fired Pizza for National Cheese Pizza Day rewards with you what you'd expect: plenty of wood-fired cheese pizza!
If nothing else, you'll have monthly(ish) reminders to eat different types of pizza!
2/9 - National Pizza Day
It's fitting that the first pizza holiday of the year is also the most agnostic. National Pizza Day is a good warmup for the rest of the year, as you can observe by ordering any sort of pizza and calling it good. That said, why not use it as a chance to go crazy and order something from the fringes of your local pizza restaurant's menu—like a deep-fried pickle and Proscuitto ranch pizza?
4/5 - National Deep Dish Pizza Day
This one speaks for itself. What's the one thing better than pizza? More pizza. Serving it deep dish addresses this age-old consideration by presenting pizza in the form of more pizza. You can probably guess the best way to celebrate.
5/20 - National Pizza Party Day
This one is actually on the third Friday of every May, so the date can change each year. What doesn't change each year is the fact that this day is the single best excuse to throw an over-the-top pizza party. Go absolutely crazy and get as many pizzas as you can fit on a table, and then order even more. After all, it's THE LITERAL day for it!
6/11 - Pizza Margherita Day
While it might not be as well known as its meatier contemporaries, Pizza Margherita is still a special member of the pizza family tree. This classic combination is typically served with tomato sauce, freshly sliced mozzarella, basil, and a hint of olive oil—although, plenty of variations exist!
9/5 - National Cheese Pizza Day
You can never go wrong with cheese. Whether you prefer your cheese to be of the "4-blend," "pure-mozzarella," or "atomically orange" variety, this is a staple pizza topping for a reason.
9/20 - National Pepperoni Pizza Day
It will surprise exactly 0 people to know that pepperoni is the single most popular pizza topping in the United States. If you celebrate the holiday in any way besides ordering a large pepperoni and going crazy, then you're likely to offend the many, many pepperoni purists out there. Be warned!
10/9 - International Beer and Pizza Day
You read that correctly. It might SOUND too good to be true, but this holiday exists. Better yet, there's a ~70%ish chance that it falls on a weekday each year, meaning you've got a free excuse to indulge in beer and pizza on a weeknight! It's a holiday, after all—you're just observing tradition!
10/11 - National Sausage Pizza Day
Here's a fun fact: sausage is actually the SECOND most popular pizza topping in America! It's not hard to see why: sausage makes a great supporting player for countless types of pizzas, and it's more than capable of standing on its own. Here's to you, oh silver medal of pizza meats.
11/1 - National Calzone Day
While they can sometimes have a reputation for just being a doughier folded pizza slice, there's plenty of room for calzones to be an artwork in their own right. A good calzone combines all of the best parts of a pizza with all of the best parts of a particularly crispy burrito, offering an experience that's equal parts eating and digging.
11/12 - National Pizza With the Works Day
It seems fitting that the last pizza holiday of the year celebrates a type of pizza with EVERYTHING on it—like some sort of delicious, cheesy, best-of recap. If nothing else, you can think of this holiday as a final exam over all the other pizza toppings that you've had a chance to study over the course of the year.
Which one of these pizza holidays is your favorite? Sound off in the comments!
