Every Day Is Special: July 26 – Aunts and Uncles and Bagels Day

July 26 – Aunts and Uncles and Bagels Day

Posted on July 26, 2017

Today is Aunts and Uncles Day in the United States and some other countries.

It is also the 32nd annual Bagelfest in Mattoon, Illinois, home of what is claimed to be the world's largest bagel factory:

Aunts, uncles, and bagels can all be very important parts of life!!!

(1) Aunts and uncles can be as important as grandparents! They have fewer of the cares and worries of parenthood toward their nieces and nephews, and yet they are younger and probably stronger and more vigorous than grandparents. Great combo for fun, right?

Naturally, some kids don't have aunts and uncles who are close, geographically or emotionally, and some kids don't have uncles or aunts at all. As a matter of fact, I've talked to some European people who do not have brothers or sisters, aunts or uncles or cousins, and - shocking to me in the more expansive U.S. - they don't even KNOW ANYONE who has brothers or sisters, aunts or uncles or cousins!

But other kids are lucky enough to have aunts who take them on outings, uncles who roughhouse with them, aunts who play sports with them, and uncles who spoil their appetites with ice cream cones.

Today, on Aunts and Uncles Day, call your aunts and uncles, send cards to your nieces and nephews, or make a plan for the next get-together!

(2) Bagels are so delicious! These dense ring-shaped rolls are made by boiling dough and then baking it. Yummm...chewy and delicious. Whether you prefer you bagels plain or seeded, sweet or savory, covered with peanut butter or butter or cream cheese or chicken salad or avocado...I'm sure you agree: Bagels deserve a BagelFest!

On this date in 1986, Murray Lender, owner of Lender Bagels, threw a free bagel breakfast in the factory town of Mattoon, Illinois. Since then the breakfast has grown into a five-day annual BagelFest, with everything from a parade and a beautiful-baby contest to setting world records!

If you cannot fly to Illinois this week, you could still hold your own BagelFest by eating bagels for breakfast, lunch, and dinner! I myself like a nice cinnamon-raisin bagels with butter to accompany my eggs, at breakfast time. I love a sesame seed bagel with chicken salad at lunch. For dinner, why not cut in half a plain bagel; top it with tomato sauce, Italian spices, and mozzarella cheese; and bake it? Yum, bagel mini-pizzas!