International Picnic Day Date in the current year: June 18, 2024

A picnic is a meal taken outdoors, typically in scenic surroundings, such as a park, beach, lakeside, or another place with an interesting view. Picnics can be a part of an excursion, a hike, or a public event such as an open-air performance. Large picnics usually involve outdoor games or some other form of entertainment.

The word “picnic” has been used in English to refer to an outdoor meal since the early 19th century. Its origin has been debated; the word seems to derive from the French word pique-nique, which was first recorded in the 17th century and originally meant a shared meal where everyone pays for themselves.

The practice of elegant outdoor meals is connected to recreational hunting; it was especially common among the French aristocracy. French aristocrats who fled the country in the wake of the French Revolution brought their picnicking traditions to other European countries, including England where picnics became elaborate social occasions as described, for example, in Jane Austen’s novels.

Of course, modern picnics are much more casual. Everyone can grab some food and enjoy it at a local park, beach, hiking area, or in their own backyard. Picnic foods are usually cold, easy to cook, and easy to eat. Popular picnic foods include sandwiches, wraps and rolls, cold cuts and cheeses, easy salads, finger foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, cold fried chicken, cold hard-boiled eggs or deviled eggs, chips and dip, skewers, and cookies.

Your picnic can be as informal or formal as you want. Some people simply throw a blanket on the ground and use disposable plates, cups and cutlery, while others prefer to have their picnics in designated areas with picnic tables, gazebos, restrooms, garbage containers, and sometimes even built-in grills. Fancy picnics are less common now than they used to be, but if you want to drink chilled champagne from crystal glasses and eat with silver cutlery, who are we to stop you?

Picnics are a many people’s favorite summer pastime, so it is not surprising that International Picnic Day is celebrated in summer – at least in the Northern Hemisphere. The origins of this amazing holiday are unclear, but it shouldn’t stop you from having a picnic on June 18 – or any day you want, really.

You can celebrate International Picnic Day by having a picnic at a local park or at least eating your lunch outside, checking out a new picnic place, getting your friends together for a potluck picnic, going on a picnic hike, organizing a charity picnic to raise funds for a cause that’s dear to you, or hosting an outdoor movie night with picnic foods in your backyard for your friends and family. And don’t forget to snap a photo of your outdoor meal and post it on social media with the hashtags #InternationalPicnicDay and #PicnicDay to spread the word about the holiday.