TRAVESTY: An important national holiday completely ignored for far too long.
February 9 marks an important day for many pizza-lovers. For on this day the whole nation should come together to celebrate National Pizza Day, a day where we celebrate the wonders of the pizza, whether it be the thin crust, deep dish, or anything in between. It is a day where we can set aside our differences, and unite under America’s favorite food, shown especially in a recent survey by The Harris Poll, in which 21% of Americans said they would eat pizza for the rest of their life, beating out tacos, pasta and even the classic hamburger. So why then, is this holiday completely overlooked by the common individual?
The biggest issue that people seem to find with having an International Pizza Day is that pizza is not worth having a holiday for. However, there are plenty of things to celebrate about pizza. Most notably, pizza has a rich and deep history. The pizza has its earliest roots with the ancient Romans, Egyptians, and Babylonians over 7000 years ago. Though not what we consider pizza today, these cultures used to hold great banquets for the rich. Scraps from these banquets would fall onto the table, where they were swept off onto dough and baked, then thrown to the poor, who would gather around to eat them. The first “modern” pizza was made during the 18th or 19th century and is typically accredited to Raffaele Esposito. Legend has it that the king of Italy, Umberto I, and his queen, Queen Margharita, came to visit Naples in 1889. There, Esposito served them the first-ever modern pizza, which to this day is still called the Margherita Pizza. However, historians note that there are accounts from as far back as the 1600s of street vendors serving what appears to be the modern pizza. The first pizza restaurant, Lombardi’s Pizzeria opened its doors in 1905 where Genarro Lombardi sold pizza from a street-front shop in Manhattan’s Italian-American district. So why should a food so full of history not be celebrated? After all, we celebrate days based on famous people, such as Christopher Columbus and Abraham Lincoln, and we celebrate famous events in history, such as the 4th of July, or Thanksgiving. So why not celebrate a famous food that has been around far longer than the modern United States or Christopher Columbus?
But there is more to celebrate about pizza than just its history. Pizza has always unified people, regardless of race, color, or wealth. During ancient times, the pizza was a uniting force between the rich and the poor, and poor people would gather from all over the city to eat the pizza together. In the first pizza restaurant in Manhattan, men and women from all walks of life would gather under its roof on cold Manhattan winter days to feast on the cheesy delight of a pizza. Pizza is more than just a food, it represents a unity that is unparalleled by any of its tasty competitors. You can find pizza anywhere in the world, and most incredibly is what cultures do with pizza. In 1945, pizza was introduced to Japan. Instead of trying to replicate what the classic European pizza was, Japanese chefs experimented, putting less traditional toppings on the pizza, like miso, corn, and Japanese spices, creating mind-blowing combinations that would never have surfaced otherwise. When the pizza came to Africa, a similar thing occurred, with traditional African Spices and herbs being put on the basic pizza formula, creating an African Style pizza. Then there is the infamous “Hawaiian” pizza, created in Canada in 1962. Pizza, though accredited as an Italian Dish, has adapted to a world market. If anything, we should celebrate this uniting force that pizza exerts. After all, few foods have done so well on the world market, and there is no food that can claim to be found in almost every country on Earth. In fact, even astronauts on the International Space Station have pizza nights, where they create pizzas with ingredients that are sent up to them. How can such a unifying and important food not be celebrated?
Ultimately, there are plenty of reasons for an International Pizza day to be considered a serious holiday. So why then has it been so ignored? Aside from the arguments that pizza is not worth celebrating, maybe people have just forgotten that not every holiday has to mark a serious occasion. Perhaps we live in a world where with all the trouble and turmoil, people do not stop to celebrate the small things that make life so worth living. If anything, let International Pizza day be representative of that. Let it represent the small things that make this life so great. Because after all, who doesn’t love pizza?