Coming Monday October everyone will find the halls of students sprinkled with carnation receivers. Many have seen the Key Club coming around taking orders for carnations, and many may have bought a carnation or two for lovers and friends. It’s that time of the year. It’s Sweetest Day, a holiday celebrated every third Saturday of October. It is a holiday for friends, family and lovers.
The holiday was founded right here in Ohio, being created right here in Cleveland. It is most celebrated here as well, seen as a local holiday of importance. It was started in 1921, a featured article in the Plain Dealer announcing the new holiday. It was constructed by a committee of twelve, mainly candy confectioners. The committee was called “The Sweetest Day in the Year Committee” and they distributed 20,00 boxes of candies to orphans, old folks, and the poor in the first year. Years later they often tried to donate boxes of candy to charities and orphanages.
Why confectioners? Well, the holiday is a more capital holiday, meaning to bring profit to confectioners. Such a thing is why many have come to criticize the holiday, like how many do the same towards Valentine’s Day. Sweetest Day is often referred to as a “Hallmark holiday,” but the company had nothing to do with the founding of the holiday.