Bacon Day Date in the current year: December 30, 2024

Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork that can be made from various cuts, usually the belly, but other cuts can be used as well. There are several types of bacon depending on the cut: side bacon (also called streaky bacon because it consists of alternating layers of meat and fat), back bacon, collar bacon, cottage bacon (made from the shoulder), and jowl bacon.

Streaky bacon is the most popular type of bacon in the United States. It is typically pan-fried or grilled and eaten as a side dish or used as an ingredient in other dishes such as burgers, sandwiches (for example, BLT — the bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich), salads, etc.

Bacon Day, sometimes referred to as National Bacon Day, was founded in 1997 by two friends, Meff “Human Cannonball” Leonard and Danya “D” Goodman, who wanted to create an end-of-the-year gift-giving holiday that has no religious connotations whatsoever. They dedicated it to bacon to pay homage to Homer Simpson of The Simpsons and his love for bacon.

The founders encourage people to celebrate the holiday by eating various bacon dishes while watching movies with bacon in the title or movies featuring Kevin Bacon. Of course, this is just one of the many ways to celebrate Bacon Day. You can observe the holiday by topping the food you eat during the day with bacon, cooking all your favorite bacon dishes or trying new recipes, sampling different varieties of bacon to choose the one you like the most, or inviting your friends over for a bacon cook-off.

It is perfectly fine if you decide to stick to more traditional recipes during your Bacon Day celebrations, but if you’ve always wanted to experiment with bacon, here’s your chance to finally do it! You can try making bacon brownies, bacon chocolate cupcakes or bacon cookies (using tiny bacon bits instead of or in addition to chocolate chips), bacon tacos, bacon sushi, or at least serve some ice cream with a side of crispy bacon.

Bacon Day is also a great occasion to try unusual bacon-flavored treats. They include, for example, chocolate-covered bacon, maple bacon donuts, bacon chocolate milkshakes, bacon-flavored jelly beans and chewing gum, bacon peanut brittle, bacon-flavored mayonnaise (aptly called Baconnaise), bacon salt, and bacon-flavored vodka. There are bacon-flavored consumer products too, such as bacon-flavored chapstick and even bacon-flavored lube!

Don’t forget to snap a photo of your bacon dish or dishes and share it on social media with the hashtags #BaconDay and #NationalBaconDay to let others know about this amazing holiday and encourage them to celebrate it too.

By the way, Bacon Day is not the only holiday celebrating all things bacon. You also can celebrate National Bacon Lover’s Day on August 20, International Bacon Day on the Saturday before Labor Day, and National Canadian Bacon Day on March 3.