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National Cheese Lovers Day (January 20)

Check out the weird holiday National Cheese Lovers Day on January 20. Learn the history of cheese, as well as get ideas on how to celebrate.

One weird holiday on January 20 is National Cheese Lovers Day. Check out the other weird January holidays!

History of National Cheese Lovers Day

The earliest record of cheese making dates back to 5000 BC in what is now Poland (alghouth some say it was Arabia). Cheese was actually discovered by accident! In those times, milk was transported by people storing it in the stomachs of sheep. If it was left for a few days, the milk separated into whey and curd. When it was preserved with salt, it turned into cheese.

Cheesemaking is an extremely sensitive process; factors such as the environment and the temperature of the milk will change its taste and smell. Other factors include bacteria/fungi, type of milk, time, moisture, and herbs.

In 100 BC, cheesemaking became a widely valued practice during the Roman Empire, especially in the Middle East and Europe. Then centuries later, Queen Victoria of England was given a wedding gift of a giant wheel of cheese that weighed over 1,000 pounds!

In the 1600s, English dairy farmers brought their cheesemaking knowledge with them to the new English colonies in the Americas. In 1831, the first farmstead cheese factory was opened in Koshkonog, Wisconsin.

Cheese didn’t become as widely used until the invention of the refrigerator in 1913, allowing cheese to be more preserved to last longer. An old law in the state of Wisconsin used to require restaurants to serve cheese at every meal!

Today, there are over 1,400 varieties of cheese! If you tried one new variety per day, it would take you five years! The nutritional value of the cheese depends on its variety.

The heaviest cheese in the world was prepared by a Canadian cheesemaker, and it weighed over 57,000 pounds! Pizza Hut uses 300 million pounds of cheese each year, and the average American adult eats 33 pounds of cheese annually.

Ideas for National Cheese Lovers Day

Other than eating a block of cheese, here are some ideas to celebrate this weird holiday.

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