#wonder if this is going to be yearly for april fools and halloween

[spelled-like-pajamas]

i am now armed with the power of BOOps, no one can stop me now

[rabbitcruiser]

National Banana Day

Orange you glad I didn’t say banana? Enjoy some banana based treat like banana bread, a banana split, or even banana punch, and tell some terrible jokes.

National Banana Day is a bit like a heady mix of April Fool’s Day and Halloween (of course, without the trick or treating and vandalism) and with a helpful portion of healthy eating thrown in for good measure!

So, get ready to Go Bananas on National Banana Day!

History of National Banana Day

National Banana Day is a yearly event that is aimed at celebrating bananas in every conceivable sense of the word–because the banana is certainly a fruit worth celebrating!

While bananas are believed to have originated in Southeast Asia, mainly in India. They made their way west by Arab conquerors in 327 BC, and eventually bananas ended up in Europe. By the 1870s, bananas made their way to the Caribbean with missionaries, where the bananas were originally used for micro crops (which means growing one crop that helps another crop to grow). Eventually, though, bananas became a lucrative crop in their own right.

The popularity of bananas in the West grew throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. As they became more affordable and less exotic, bananas were added to special dishes like the banana split, or used in baking recipes like banana bread.

Regarding the origins of National Banana Day, it is known that every year students at many prestigious American universities use National Banana Day as a way of celebrating this humble fruit as a lunchbox standard. On this day, they eat and share weird and wonderful banana concoctions (banana punch, anyone?), they dress as bananas and they generally go a bit…well…nuts.

And bananas too, of course.

National Banana Day is the perfect day to find solace in this world-renowned fruit that is useful and beneficial on so many levels. Happy National Banana Day!

National Banana Day Timeline

327 BC

Bananas are brought from East to West 

Arab conquerors bring this yellow fruit when Alexander the Great sends his armies to descend upon India.

1516

Bananas make a debut in the Caribbean 

Brought by a Portuguese monk missionary, Friar Thomas de Berlanga, bananas reach the New World.

1834

Mass production of bananas begins 

Banana trees are planted and production begins on a larger scale, especially in the Caribbean.

1907

First Banana Split is made 

At his restaurant in Wilmington, Ohio, Ernest R. Hazard creates this new ice cream treat, the Banana Split which he hopes will attract college students to his shop.

1930s

Banana Bread is invented 

The first Banana Bread recipe is popularized when baking soda comes on the market in the United States.

How to Celebrate National Banana Day

Celebrating National Banana Day seems like a great time to get creative and enjoy a big load of fun! After all, there aren’t many days in the year when it is allowed to legitimately goof off and also have a little fruit-based fun, so why not take a (banana) leaf out of the students’ book and go a little bit bananas today?

Consider these ideas for celebrating National Banana Day:

Make a Banana Treat

Get creative in the kitchen and enjoy what monkeys have known all along–the banana is a fabulous food! Try these delicious treats to eat alone or share with friends:

Banana Split. A classic American tradition, the banana split uses the two halves of a sliced banana, some scoops of ice cream (usually one of each vanilla, chocolate and strawberry), and toppings such as hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts and cherries.

Banana Bread. Although the same recipe will bake more quickly when poured into muffin tins, there is something special about a dense loaf of warm banana bread. No matter what shape they are in, this is a great way to use up bananas that have gotten a bit over-ripe or brown, because over ripe bananas are sweeter.

Bananas Flambe. This French Caribbean treat is made from peeled banana halves fried in oil and then coated with rum and sugar. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, of course, it makes a delightful and dramatic show of a simple food!

Chocolate Covered Bananas. Channel that inner Arrested Development character (Bluth family, anyone?) by freezing some bananas and dipping them into chocolate–add nuts too!

Host a Banana Party

Throwing a party for National Banana Day is a great way to observe and celebrate this occasion. And certainly it’s not hard to decorate with a banana theme! Just make sure everything is yellow and green, including paper plates, napkins, balloons, tablecloths and streamers.

For an activity that doubles as a snack, provide a chocolate dipping station (aka fondue) or chocolate fountain where guests can dip slices of banana. For extra fun, supply other items for dipping, such as sprinkles, small candies, or mini marshmallows.

Learn Fun Facts About Bananas

In honor of National Banana Day, it might be a fun idea to share some information and facts about bananas with family and friends! Here are some bits of trivia to get started with:

A banana is technically not a fruit, it’s really a berry! This has to do with the fact that the seeds are located inside the flesh rather than on the outside.

Because they contain so much of the isotope Potassium-40, bananas are technically radioactive. The good news is that they can’t harm a person unless they are eating around 700 or more bananas per day for their entire lifetime.

Bananas cannot be grown simply from a seed, which means they are technically “sterile”. Instead, in order to propagate bananas, a piece from another banana plant has to be split and then grown, sort of like cloning.

The growth of popularity of bananas can be partially attributed to Jules Verne, the American author who wrote about the fruit in his book Around the World in 80 Days, which brought them to the forefront of many people’s minds.

Try Some New Recipes for National Banana Day

Other treats that can be served at a banana party, or simply taken to the office to share with coworkers, include banana muffins or banana bread (same recipe, but muffins are faster to bake and a bit easier to serve). Bananas also make a delicious and healthy additive to milkshakes or smoothies, they can be sliced up and put on top of a bowl of cereal in the morning, or they can be mashed up and put into pancakes.

Banana cake, banana ice cream, banana splits or banana pudding are all delicious and delightful recipes that can be enjoyed in honor of National Banana Day. Or try out a classic frozen banana dipped in chocolate as mentioned above.

Another treat made with bananas was also rumored to be a favorite of the pop singer, Elvis Presley, which was the peanut butter and banana sandwich

Listen to a Banana Playlist

There is no better day than National Banana Day to get jamming with a fruit-focused playlist on Spotify or another music hosting website. Play it at the above-mentioned Banana Party or listen alone. Try out a few of these songs or add a few other creative ones:

Day O [The Banana Boat Song] (1956) by Harry Belafonte

Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas (1974) by Harry Chapin

Yes, We Have No Bananas (1923) by Louis Prima

Hollaback Girl (2004) Gwen Stefani

Apples and Banana (1985) by Raffi

Banana in Your Fruit Basket (1991) by Bo Carter

Apples, Peaches, Bananas and Pears (1967) by The Monkees

Tell Some Banana Jokes

Get a little silly and have a laugh (or groan) with friends or family using a variety of banana jokes like these:

What kind of key can open a banana? A Mon-key!

Why did the banana go to the doctor? It wasn’t peeling well.

Why are bananas never lonely? Because they come in bunches.

What’s the easiest way to make a banana split? Cut it in half!

What do bananas say when they answer the phone? “Yellow?”

National Banana Day FAQs

Is there a National Banana Day?

Yes! National Banana Day is the day that people all over choose to celebrate everything to do with this delicious and nutritious yellow fruit.

When is National Banana Day?

National Banana Day is celebrated on the third Wednesday of April each year, so the date changes with the calendar.

Are Bananas good for you?

Emphatically yes! Tasty and nutritious, bananas contain fiber, protein, potassium, vitamins, manganese and more.

Do Bananas grow on trees?

Well, sort of. Though they appear to be trees, the plants that bananas grow on are actually classified as herbs that form an underground stem, called a rhizome. But technically, it’s not a tree!

How to keep Bananas fresh?

Keep your bananas in a cool, dry place. To keep them from getting overripe, bananas can be stored in the refrigerator.

Source

[01010010-posts]

— forget about all the set anniversaries celebrated all over the world, the day you’re living right now is a hundred times more wonderful.

request: Ahh, I love your HCs so much, they just give each of the RK-boys so much individuality?? ❤ Ok, so with Halloween approaching, what do you think is eachs boi's favorite holiday season (Halloween, Christmas, Valentines day etc.) and why?

i had already planned to write something like this at the start of this blog! but it has been a year lmao sorry :( i think this is the longest title i’ve ever put up?? RK900 got his share of snow in this! and RK800-60 his share of halloween in this! actually, they all did

Connor:

• he’d probably say christmas • because he’s a baby that loves socializing and participating in human customs, esp if they are all about being happy n gifting things • but tbh winter reminds him of amanda, and the revolution and all the horrible events that happened while he still wasn’t deviant • which is partly why he worries so much when it snows • and is sure to always have extra warm clothes & gloves for both of you • for this reason is fav holiday is probably the summer solstice • YEAH he knows it’s actually,,,, not a proper holiday nor it’s highly celebrated in the US of A • “but you know, I’ve found that there’s a little village – about a 3 or 4 hours drive – called ‘Kaleva’, it was founded by finnish immigrants in the 1900 and it seems.... really nice. they all gather and eat strawberry shortcake and have a bonfire. sounds fun. at least that’s what wikipedia says—” • just let him take you and go with him whenever he wants • otherwise he won’t shut up about it you know he’s a chatterbox when he puts his software to • but like, really, he’ll be the happiest robot in the whole universe you wouldn’t deny him that right? • of course because if you won’t go he’ll sulk all day and have this utterly adorable and annoying kicked puppy expression • and nobody wants to see that i promise u • besides, there’s no harm in doing something different sometimes, right?? • ps. find a couple of albums to listen to while you’re driving • yes you will sing together silly songs and giggle this is gonna be a nice trip • ok ok bonus: maybe he likes san valentine’s day too fine? • he’s such a slut for clichés as buying flowers, chocolate and weird cards with tons of hearts in it • no really this bitch is a product of capitalism im sorry but he’s totally about that cute merchandise 

RK900:

• there’s no arguing  • it’s DEF christmas  • don’t get him wrong not because of the religious implications or anything of the sort • but the whole getting together, relaxing at home and playing with snow? • that’s the good kush trust me • yeah i know • he’s a workaholic little shit • HOWEVER x-mas is the only holiday he hates to see the end of • plus i mean??? you always gift him cute things and how he’s supposed not to love that?? • how???????? • the only problem is when you don’t clearly hint enough what you actually want • everyone laugh their asses off at this huge bulky droid coming into the DPD with dishevelled hair because he’s spent the night awake searching for the perfect present for you • AND HE STILL HASN’T FOUND IT POOR BOY • smn he’s stupid just a tiny thing will do • because honestly spending every day with him is a gift as it is • it will dawn on him at some point don’t worry • in the meantime enjoy teasing him  • oh yeah forgot, he’s totally gonna kick your butt in a snowball fight • im not joking.......... he gets oddly competitive 

RK800-60:

• you know • we all know • everyone literally know • he adores every single holiday • every single one • BUT if he had to pick • he’d curb his choices to: halloween, april fools & new year • yeah yeah it’s obvious why he said halloween, there’s candy and plenty of kids to play pranks with • .... and april fool’s day p much the same, with less candies :( • the real thing though is new year parties • HE WISHES he could crash at all the new year parties available  • that’s impossible unfortunately :(( • but it’s okay the yearly DPD one is enough • or it can be with you and your friends you know • he’s not hard to please, as long as there’s some tipsy people and cheerfulness all around • and yep, that you drink or not, he’s going to be super mushy and kiss you on whatever occasion • what do you expect?? he can use the rule ‘if you do something it at new year, you’ll be doing it all year’ you won’t stop him • plus it’s good luck win win • romantic fireworks? romantic fireworks but not too loud pwease

[unsettlingshortstories]

He'll Come Knocking at Your Door

Robert R. McCammon (1986)

In the Deep South, Halloween Day is usually shirtsleeve weather. But when the sun begins to sink, there’s a foretaste of winter in the air. Pools of shadow deepen and lengthen, and the Alabama hills are transformed into moody tapestries of orange and black.

 When Dan Burgess got home from the cement plant in Barrimore Crossing, he found Karen and Jaime working over a tray of homemade candies in the shape of pumpkins. Jaime, three years old and as curious as a chipmunk, was in a hurry to try out the candy. “Those are for the trick-or-treaters, hon,” Karen explained patiently, for the third or fourth time. Both mother and daughter were blond, though Jaime had inherited Dan’s dark brown eyes. Karen’s eyes were as blue as an Alabama lake on a sunny day.

As Dan hugged his wife from behind and peered over her shoulder at the candies, he felt a sense of satisfaction that made life seem deliciously complete. He was a tall man, his face lean and rugged from a life of hard, outdoor labor. He had curly dark brown hair and a beard in need of trimming. “Looks pretty Halloweeny around here, folks!” he drawled, and lifted Jaime into his arms when she reached up for him.

“Punkins!” Jaime said gleefully.

“Hope we get some trick-or-treaters tonight,” Dan said. “Hard to tell if we will or not, this far from town.” Their home, a rented two- bedroom farmhouse set off the main highway on a couple of acres of rolling woodland, was part of a subdivision of Barrimore Crossing called Essex. The business district of Barrimore Crossing was four miles to the east, and the thirty-five or so inhabitants of the Essex community lived in houses similar to Dan’s, comfortable places surrounded by woods where deer, quail, possum, and fox were common sights. At night, Dan could sit on his front porch and see the distant porch lights of other Essex houses up in the hills. It was a quiet, peaceful place. And lucky too, Dan knew. All sorts of good things had happened to them since they’d moved here from Birmingham, after the steel mill shut down in February.

 “Might have a few.” Karen began to make eyes in the pumpkins with little silver dots of candy. “Mrs. Crosley said they always have a group of kids from town. If we didn’t have treats for them, they’d probably egg our house!”

 “Hallo'een!” Jaime pointed excitedly toward the pumpkins, wriggling to be set down.

 “Oh, I almost forgot!” Karen licked a silver dot from her finger and walked across the kitchen to the cork bulletin board next to the telephone. She took off one of the pieces of paper stuck there by a blue plastic pin. “Mr. Hathaway called at four.” She gave him the note, and he set Jaime down. “He wants you to go over to his place for some kind of meeting.”

 “Meeting?” Dan looked at the note. It said Roy Hathaway. His house, 6:30. Hathaway was the real-estate agent who’d rented them this house. He lived across the highway, up where the valley curved into the hills. “On Halloween? Did he say what for?”

 “Nope. He did say it was important, though. He said you were expected, and it was something that couldn’t be explained over the phone.”

 Dan grunted softly. He liked Roy Hathaway, who’d bent over backwards to find them this place. Dan glanced at his new Bulova wristwatch, which he’d won by being the thousandth person to buy a pickup truck from a dealership in Birmingham. It was almost five- thirty. Time enough for a shower and a ham sandwich, and then he’d go see what was so important. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll find out what he wants.”

 “Somebody’ll be a clown by the time you get back,” Karen said, glancing slyly at Jaime.

 “Me! Me’ll be a clown, Daddy!”

 Dan grinned at her and, his heart full, went back to take his shower.

 Darkness was falling fast as Dan drove his white pickup truck along the winding country road that led to Hathaway’s place. His headlights picked out a deer as it bolted in front of the truck. Beyond the ridge of hills to the west, the setting sun tinted the sky a vivid orange.

 Meeting, Dan thought uneasily. What was it that couldn’t wait? He wondered if it might have something to do with the last rent check. No, no; his days of rubber checks and irate landlords were over. There was plenty of money in the bank. In August, Dan had received a letter that said they’d won five thousand dollars in a contest at the Food Giant store in Barrimore Crossing. Karen didn’t even recall filling out an entry slip. Dan had been able to pay off the new truck and buy Karen a color television she’d been wanting. He was making more money than ever before, since his promotion in April from gravel-shoveler to unit supervisor at the cement plant. So money wasn’t the problem. What was, then?

 He loved the Essex community. It was fresh air and bird songs and a low-lying morning mist that clung like lace in the autumn trees. After the smog and harshness of Birmingham, after the trauma of losing his job and being on unemployment, Essex was a gentle, soul- soothing blessing.

 Dan believed in luck. In hindsight, it was even good luck that he’d lost that job at the mill, because if he hadn’t he never would have found Essex. One day in May he’d walked into the hardware and sporting-goods store in Barrimore Crossing and admired a double-barreled Remington shotgun in a display case. The manager had come over, and they’d talked about guns and hunting for the better part of an hour. As Dan had started to leave, the manager unlocked that display case and said: Dan, I want you to try this baby out. Go ahead, take it! It’s a new model, and the Remington people want to know how folks like it. You take it home with you. Bring me back a wild turkey or two, and if you like that gun, tell other folks where they can buy one, hear?

 It was amazing, Dan thought. He and Karen were living some kind of fantastic dream. The promotion at the plant had come right out of the blue. People respected him. Karen and Jaime were happier than he’d ever seen them. Just last month, a woman Karen had met at the Baptist church gave them a rich harvest of garden vegetables that would last them through the autumn. The only remotely bad thing that had happened since they’d moved to Essex, Dan recalled, was when he’d made a fool of himself in Roy Hathaway’s office. He’d sliced his finger on a sliver of plastic in the pen he was using to sign the lease and had bled all over the paper. It was a stupid thing to remember, he knew, but it had stuck in his mind because he’d hoped it wasn’t a bad omen. Now he knew nothing could be further from the truth.

He rounded a corner and saw Roy’s house ahead. The front- porch lights were on, and lights showed through most of the windows. The driveway was packed with cars, most of which Dan recognized as belonging to other Essex residents. What’s going on? he wondered. A community meeting? On Halloween?

 He parked his truck next to Tom Paulsen’s new Cadillac and walked up the front-porch steps to the door. As he knocked, a long keening animal cry came from the woods behind Hathaway’s house. Bobcat, he thought. The woods are full of ‘em.

 Laura Hathaway, an attractive gray-haired woman in her mid- fifties, answered the door with a cheerful, “Happy Halloween, Dan!”

 “Hi! Happy Halloween.” He stepped into the house, and could smell the aromatic cherry pipe tobacco Roy favored. The Hathaways had some nice oil paintings on their walls, and all their furniture looked new. “What’s going on?”

 “The men are down in the rumpus room,” she explained. “They’re having their little yearly get-together.” She started to lead him to another door that would take him downstairs. She limped a bit when she walked. Several years ago, Dan understood, a lawn mower had sliced off a few of the toes on her right foot.

 “Looks like everybody in Essex is here, with all those cars outside.”

 She smiled, her kindly face crinkling. “Everybody is here, now. Go on down and make yourself at home.”

 He descended the stairs. He heard Roy’s husky voice down there: “… Jenny’s gold earrings, the ones with the little pearls. Carl, this year it’s one of Tiger’s new kittens—the one with the black markings on its legs, and that ax you got at the hardware store last week. Phil, he wants one of your piglets and the pickled okra Marcy put in the cupboard… ”

 When Dan reached the bottom of the stairs, Roy stopped talking. The rumpus room, carpeted in bright red because Roy was a Crimson Tide fan, was filled with men from the Essex community. Roy, a hefty man with white hair and friendly, deep-set blue eyes, was sitting in a chair in the midst of them, reading from some kind of list. The others sat around him, listening intently. Roy looked up at Dan, as did the other men, and puffed thoughtfully on his pipe. “Howdy, Dan. Grab yourself a cup of coffee and sit a spell.”

 “I got your message. What kind of meeting is this?” He glanced around, saw faces he knew: Steve Mallory, Phil Kane, Carl Lansing, Andy McCutcheon, and more. A pot of coffee, cups, and a platter of sandwiches were placed on a table on one side of the room.

 “Be with you in a minute,” Roy said. While Dan, puzzled at what was so important on Halloween, poured himself a cup of coffee, he listened to Roy reading from the list he held. “Okay, where were we? Phil, that’s it for you, I reckon. Next is Tom. This year it’s that ship model you put together, a pair of Ann’s shoes—the gray ones she bought in Birmingham—and Tom Junior’s G.I. Joe doll. Andy, he wants…”

 Huh? Dan thought as he sipped at the hot black coffee. He looked at Tom, who seemed to have released a breath he’d been holding for a long time. Tom’s model of Old Ironsides had taken him months to put together, Dan knew. Dan’s gaze snagged other eyes that quickly looked away. He noted that Mitch Brantley, whose wife had just had their first child in July, looked ill; Mitch’s face was the color of wet cotton. A haze of smoke hung in the air from Roy’s pipe and several other smokers’ cigarettes. Cups rattled against saucers. Dan looked at Aaron Greene, who stared back at him through strange, glassy eyes. Aaron’s wife, Dan had heard, had died of a heart attack last year about this time. Aaron had shown him pictures of her, a robust-looking brunette in her late thirties.

 “… your golf clubs, your silver cufflinks, and Tweetybird,” Roy continued.

 Andy McCutcheon laughed nervously. In his pallid, fleshy face his eyes were dark and troubled. “Roy, my little girl loves that canary. I mean… she’s real attached to it.”

 Roy smiled. It was a tight, false smile, and something about it started a knot of tension growing in Dan’s stomach. “You can buy her another one, Andy,” he said. “Can’t you?”

 “Sure, but she loves—”

 “One canary’s just like another.” He drew at his pipe, and when he lifted a hand to hold the bowl, the overhead light glinted off the large diamond ring he wore.

 “Excuse me, gents.” Dan stepped forward. “I sure would like for somebody to tell me what this is all about. My wife and little girl are getting ready for Halloween.”

 “So are we,” Roy replied, and blew out a plume of smoke. “So are we.” He traced his finger down the list. Dan saw that the paper was mottled and dirty; it looked as if it had been used to wipe out the inside of a garbage can. The writing on it was scrawled and spiky. “Dan,” Roy said, and tapped the paper. “This year he wants two things from you. First is a set of fingernail clippings. Your own fingernails. The second is—”

 “Hold on.” Dan tried to smile, but couldn’t find one. “I don’t get this. How about starting from the beginning.”

Roy stared at him for a long, silent moment. Dan felt other eyes on him, watching him carefully. On the opposite side of the room, Walter Ferguson suddenly began quietly sobbing. “Oh,” Roy said. “Sure. It’s your first Halloween in Essex, isn’t it?”

 “Right. And?”

 “Sit down, Dan.” Roy motioned toward an empty chair near him. “Come on, sit down and I’ll tell you.”

 Dan didn’t like the feeling in this room; there was too much tension and fear in here. Walter’s sobbing was louder. “Tom,” Roy said, “take Walter out for a breath of air, won’t you?” Tom muttered an assent and helped the crying man out of his chair. When they had left the rumpus room, Roy struck a kitchen match to relight his pipe and looked calmly at Dan Burgess.

 “So tell me,” Dan urged as he sat down. He did smile this time, but the smile would not stick.

 “It’s Halloween,” Roy explained, as if speaking to a retarded child. “We’re going over the Halloween list.”

 Dan laughed involuntarily. “Is this a joke, gents? What kind of Halloween list?”

 Roy’s thick white brows came together as he gathered his thoughts. Dan realized the other man was wearing the same dark red sweater he’d worn the day Dan had signed that lease and cut his finger. “Call it… a trick-or-treat list, Dan. You know, we all like you. You’re a good man. We can’t think of a better neighbor to have in Essex.” He glanced around as some of the others nodded. “Essex is a very special place to live, Dan. You must know that by now.”

“Sure. It’s great. Karen and I love it here.”

 “We all do. Some of us have lived here for a long time. We appreciate the good life we have here. And in Essex, Dan, Halloween is a very special night of the year.”

 Dan frowned. “I’m not following you.”

 Roy produced a gold pocket watch, popped it open to look at the time, then closed it again. When he lifted his gaze, his eyes seemed darker and more powerful than Dan had ever seen them. They made him shiver to his soul. “Do you believe in the Devil?” Roy asked.

 Again Dan laughed. “What are we doing, telling spooky stories?” He looked around the room. No one else was laughing.

 “When you came to Essex,” Roy said softly, “you were a loser. Down on your luck. No job. Your money was almost gone. Your credit rating was zero. You had an old car that was ready for the junkyard. Now I want you to think back on all the good things that have happened to you—all the things you might have taken as a run of good luck—since you’ve been part of our community. You’ve gotten everything you’ve wanted, haven’t you? Money’s come to you like never before. You got yourself a brand-new truck. A promotion at the plant. And there’ll be more good things to come in the years ahead—if you cooperate.”

 “Cooperate?” He didn’t like the sound of that word. “Cooperate how?”

 “With the list. Like we all do, every Halloween. Every October thirty-first I find a list just like this one under the welcome mat at the front door. Why I’ve been chosen to handle it, I don’t know. Maybe because I help bring new people in. These items on this list are to be left in front of your door on Halloween. In the morning, they’re gone. He comes during the night, Dan, and he takes them away with him.”

 “This is a Halloween joke, isn’t it!” Dan grinned. “Jesus Christ, you gents had me going! That’s a hell of an act to put on just to scare the crap out of me!”

 But Roy’s face remained impassive. Smoke seeped from a  corner of his wrinkled mouth. “The list,” Roy continued evenly, “has to be collected and left out before midnight, Dan. If you don’t collect the items and leave them for him, he’ll come knocking at your door. And you don’t want that, Dan. You really don’t.”

 A chunk of ice seemed to have jammed itself in Dan’s throat, while the rest of his body felt feverish. The Devil in Essex? Collecting things like golf clubs and cufflinks, ship models and pet canaries? “You’re crazy!” he managed to say. “If this isn’t a damned joke, you’ve dropped both your oars into the water!”

 “It’s no joke, and he ain’t crazy,” Phil Kane said, sitting behind Roy. Phil was a large, humorless man who raised pigs on a farm about a mile away. “It’s just once a year. Just on Halloween. Hell, last year alone I won one of them magazine sweepstakes. It was fifteen thousand dollars at one whack! The year before that, an uncle I didn’t even know had died and left me a hundred acres of land in California. We get free stuff in the mail all the time. It’s just once a year we have to give him what he wants.”

 “Laura and I go to art auctions in Birmingham,” Roy said. “We always get what we want for the lowest bid. And the paintings are always worth five or ten times what we pay. Last Halloween he asked for a lock of Laura’s hair and one of my old shirts with blood on it where I cut myself shaving. You remember that trip to Bermuda the real-estate company gave us last summer? I’ve been given a huge expense account, and no matter what I charge, nobody asks any questions. He gives us everything we want.”

Trick-or-treat! Dan thought crazily. He envisioned some hulking, monstrous form lugging off a set of golf clubs, one of Phil’s piglets, and Tom’s Old Ironsides. God, it was insane! Did these men really believe they were making sacrifices to a satanic trick-or-treater?

 Roy lifted his eyebrows. “You didn’t return the shotgun, did you? Or the money. You didn’t refuse the promotion.”

 “I earned that promotion!” Dan insisted, but his voice was strained and weak, and it shamed him.

 “You signed the agreement in blood,” Roy said, and Dan remembered the drops of blood falling from his cut finger onto the white paper of the lease, right underneath his name. “Whether you knew it or not, you agreed to something that’s been going on in Essex for over a hundred years. You can have anything and everything you want, Dan, if you give him what he wants on one special night of the year.”

 “My God,” Dan whispered. He felt dizzy and sick. If it was true... what had he stumbled into? “You said... he wants two things from me. The fingernail clippings and what else?”

 Roy looked at the list and cleared his throat. “He wants the clippings, and… he wants the first joint of the little finger of your child’s left hand.”

 Dan sat motionless. He stared straight ahead, and feared for an awful moment that he would start laughing and giggle himself all the way to an asylum.

 “It’s really not much,” Roy said. “There won’t be a lot of blood, will there, Carl?”

Carl Lansing, who worked as a butcher at the Food Giant in Barrimore Crossing, raised his left hand to show Dan Burgess. “Not much pain if you do it quick, with a cleaver. One sharp blow’ll snap the bone. She won’t feel a whole lot of pain if you do it fast.”

 Dan swallowed. Carl’s slicked-back black hair gleamed with Vitalis under the light. Dan had always wondered exactly how Carl had lost the thumb of his left hand.

 “If you don’t put what he wants in front of your door,” Andy McCutcheon said, “he’ll come in after them. And then he’ll take more than he asked for in the first place, Dan. God help you if he has to knock at your door.”

 Dan’s eyes felt like frozen stones in his rigid face; he stared across  the room at Mitch Brantley, who appeared to be either about to faint or throw up. Dan thought of Mitch’s new son, and he did not want to think about what might be on the list beside either Mitch’s or Walter Ferguson’s name. He rose unsteadily from his chair. It was not that he believed the Devil was coming to his house tonight for a bizarre trick- or-treat that frightened him so deeply; it was that he knew they believed, and he didn’t know how to deal with it.

 “Dan,” Roy Hathaway said gently, “we’re all in this together. It’s not so bad. Really it isn’t. Usually all he wants are little things. Things that don’t matter very much.” Mitch made a soft, strangled groaning sound. Dan flinched, but Roy paid no attention. Dan had the sudden urge to leap at Roy and grab him by the front of that blood- red sweater and shake him until he split open. “Once in a while he… takes something of value,” Roy said, “but not very often. And he always gives us back so much more than he takes.”

 “You’re crazy. All of you… are crazy.”

 “Give him what he wants.” Steve Mallory spoke in the strong bass voice that was so distinctive in the Baptist church choir on Sunday mornings. “Do it, Dan. Don’t make him knock at your door.”

 “Do it,” Roy told him. “For your own sake, and for your family’s.”

 Dan backed away from them. Then he turned and ran up the stairs, ran out of the house as Laura Hathaway was coming out of the kitchen with a big bowl of pretzels, ran down the front steps and across the lawn to his pickup. Near Steve Mallory’s new silver Chevy, Walter and Tom were standing together. Dan  heard Walter sob, “… not her ear, Tom! Dear God, not her whole ear!”

 Dan got into his truck and left twin streaks of rubber on the pavement as he drove away.

  Dead leaves whirled through the turbulent, chilly air as Dan pulled up into his driveway, got out and ran up the front-porch steps. Karen had taped a cardboard skeleton to the door. His heart was pounding, and he’d decided to take no chances; if this was an elaborate joke, they could laugh their asses off at him, but he was getting Karen and Jaime out of here.

 Halfway home, a thought had occurred to him that had almost made him pull off the road to puke: if the list had demanded a lock of Jaime’s hair, would he have given it without question? How about her fingernail clippings? A whole fingernail? An earlobe? And if he had given any of those things, what would be on the trick-or-treat list next year and the year after that?

 Not much blood, if you do it quick.

 “Karen!” he shouted as he unlocked the door and went in. The house was too quiet. “Karen!”

“Lord, Dan! What are you yelling about?” She came into the front room from the hallway, followed by Jaime in clown makeup, an oversize red blouse, patched little blue jeans, and sneakers covered with round yellow happy-face stickers. Dan knew he must look like walking death, because Karen stopped as if she’d run into a wall when she saw him. “What’s happened?” she asked fearfully.

 “Listen to me. Don’t ask any questions.” He wiped the sheen of sweat off his forehead with a trembling hand. Jaime’s soft brown eyes reflected the terror he’d brought into the house with him. “We’re leaving right now. We’re going to drive to Birmingham and check into a motel.”

 “It’s Halloween!” Karen said. “We might have some trick-or-treaters!”

 “Please… don’t argue with me! We’ve got to get out of here right now!” Dan jerked his gaze away from his child’s left hand; he’d been looking at the little finger and thinking terrible thoughts. “Right now,” he repeated.

 Jaime was stunned, about to cry. On a table beside her was a plate with the Halloween candies on it—grinning pumpkins with silver eyes and licorice mouths. “We have to go,” Dan said hoarsely. “I can’t tell you why, but we have to.” Before Karen could say anything else, Dan told her to gather whatever she wanted— toothpaste, a jacket, underwear—while he went out and started the truck. But hurry! he urged her. For God’s sake, hurry!

 Outside, dead leaves snapped at his cheeks and sailed past his head. He slid behind the pickup’s wheel, put the key into the ignition, and turned it.

 The engine made one long groaning noise, rattled, and died.

Christ! Dan thought, close to panic. He’d never had any problem with the truck before! He pumped the accelerator and tried again. The engine was stone-cold dead, and all the warning lights—brake fluid, engine oil, battery, even gasoline—flashed red on the instrument panel.

 Of course, he realized. Of course. He had paid off the truck with the money he’d won. The truck had been given to him while he was a resident of Essex—and now whatever was coming to their house tonight didn’t want him driving that truck away from Essex.

 They could run for it. Run along the road. But what if they ran into the Halloween visitor, there in the lonely darkness? What if it came up behind them on the road, demanding its trick-or-treat like a particularly nasty child?

 He tried the truck again. Dead.

 Inside the house, Dan slammed the door and locked it. He went to the kitchen door and locked that too, his wife and daughter watching him as if he’d lost his mind. Dan shouted, “Karen, check all the windows! Make sure they’re shut tight! Hurry, damn it!” He went to the closet and took out his shotgun, got a box of shells off the shelf; he opened the box, put it on the table next to the pumpkin candies, broke open the gun’s breech, and stuffed two shells into the chambers. Then he closed the breech and looked up as Karen and Jaime returned, clinging to each other.

 “All… the windows are shut,” Karen whispered, her scared blue eyes flickering back and forth from Dan’s face to the shotgun. “Dan, what’s wrong with you?”

 “Something’s coming to our door tonight,” he replied. “Something terrible. We’re going to have to hold it off. I don’t know if we can, but we have to try. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

 “It’s… Halloween,” she said, and he saw she thought he was totally cracked.

 The telephone! he thought suddenly, and ran for it. He picked up the receiver and dialed for the operator in Barrimore Crossing to call for a police car. Officer, the Devil’s on his way to our house tonight and we don’t have his favorite kind of candy.

 But on the other end of the line was a piercing crackle of static that sounded like a peal of eerie laughter. Through the static Dan heard things that made him believe he’d truly hurtled over the edge: the crazy theme music from a Porky Pig cartoon, a crash of cymbals, the military drumming of a marching band, assorted gurgles and gasps and moans as if he’d been plugged into a graveyard party line. Dan dropped the receiver, and it dangled from its cord like a lynched corpse. Have to think, he told himself. Figure things out. Hold the bastard off. Got to hold him off. He looked at the fireplace and felt a new hammerblow of horror. “Dear God!” he shouted. “We’ve got to block up the chimney!”

 Dan got on his knees, reached up the chimney, and closed the flue. There were already pine logs, kindling, and newspapers in the fireplace, ready for the first cold night of the year. He went into the kitchen, got a box of Red Top matches, and put them into the breast pocket of his shirt; when he came back into the room, Jaime was crying and Karen was holding her tightly, whispering, “Shhh, darling. Shhhh.” She watched her husband like one would watch a dog with foam on its mouth.

 Dan pulled a chair about ten feet from the front door and sat down with the shotgun across his knees. His eyes were sunken into his head and ringed with purple. He looked at his new Bulova watch; somehow, the crystal had shattered. The hands had snapped off.

“Dan,” Karen said—and then she too started to cry.

 “I love you, honey,” he told her. “You know I love both of you, don’t you? I swear I do. I won’t let him in. I won’t give him what he wants. Because if I do that, what will he take next year? I love you both, and I want you to remember that.”

 “Oh, God… Dan…”

 “They think I’m going to do it and leave it outside the door for him,” Dan said. His hands were gripped tightly around the shotgun, his knuckles white. “They think I could take a cleaver and—”

 The lights flickered, and Karen screamed. Jaime’s wail joined hers.

 Dan felt his face contorting with fear. The lights flickered, flickered—and went out.

 “He’s coming,” Dan rasped. “He’s coming soon.” He stood up, walked to the fireplace, bent down, and struck a match. It took four matches to get the fire going right; its orange light turned the room into a Halloween chamber of horrors, and smoke repelled from the blocked flue swept around the walls like searching spirits. Karen was pressed against the wall, and Jaime’s clown makeup was streaming down her cheeks.

 Dan returned to the chair, his eyes stinging with smoke, and watched the door.

 He didn’t know how much longer it was when he sensed something on the front porch. Smoke was filling the house, but the room had suddenly become bone-achingly cold. He thought he heard something scratching out there on the porch, searching around the door for the items that weren’t there.

 He’ll come knocking at your door. And you don’t want that. You really don’t.

 “Dan—”

 “Shhhh,” he warned her. “Listen! He’s out there.” “Him? Who? I don’t hear—”

There was a knock at the door like a sledgehammer striking the wood. Dan saw the door tremble through the smoke-haze. The knock was followed by a second, with more force. Then a third that made the door bend inward like cardboard.

 “Go away!” Dan shouted. “There’s nothing for you here!” Silence.

It’s all a trick! he thought. Roy and Tom and Carl and Steve and all the rest are out there in the dark, laughing fit to bust a gut!

 But the room was getting viciously cold. Dan shivered, saw his breath float away past his face.

 Something scraped on the roof above their heads, like claws seeking a weak chink in the shingles.

 “GO AWAY!” Dan’s voice cracked. “GO AWAY, YOU BASTARD!”

 The scraping stopped. After a long moment of silence, something smashed against the roof like an anvil being dropped. The entire house groaned. Jaime screamed, and Karen shouted, “What is it, Dan, what is it out there?”

 Immediately following was a chorus of laughter from beyond the front door. Someone said, “Okay, I guess that’s enough!” A different voice called, “Hey, Dan! You can open up now! Just kiddin'!” A third voice said, “Trick-or-treat, Danny boy!”

 He recognized Carl Lansing’s voice. There was more laughter, more whooping cries of “Trick-or-treat!”

 My God! Dan rose to his feet. It’s a joke. A brutal, ridiculous joke!

 “Open the door!” Carl called. “We can’t wait to see your face!”

 Dan almost cried, but there was rage building in him and he thought he might just aim the shotgun at them and threaten to shoot their balls off. Were they all crazy? How had they managed the phone and the lights? Was this some kind of insane initiation to Essex? He went to the door on shaky legs, unlocked it— Behind him, Karen said suddenly, “Dan, don’t!”

 —and opened the door.

 Carl Lansing stood on the porch. His black hair was slicked back, his eyes as bright as new pennies. He looked like the cat that had swallowed the canary.

 “You damned fools!” Dan raged. “Do you know what kind of scare you people put into me and my family? I ought to shoot your damned—”

 And then he stopped, because he realized Carl was standing alone on the porch.

Carl grinned. His teeth were black. “Trick-or-treat,” he whispered, and raised the ax that he’d been holding behind his back.

 With a cry of terror, Dan stumbled backward and lifted the shotgun. The thing that had assumed Carl’s shape oozed across the threshold; orange firelight glinted off the upraised ax blade.

 Dan squeezed the shotgun’s trigger, but the gun didn’t go off. Neither barrel would fire. Jammed! he thought wildly, and broke open the breech to clear it.

 There were no shells in the shotgun. Jammed into the chambers were Karen’s pumpkin candies.

 “TRICK-OR-TREAT, DAN!” the thing wailed. “TRICK-OR-TREAT!”

 Dan struck into the Carl-thing’s stomach with the butt of the shotgun. From its mouth sprayed a mess of yellow canary feathers, pieces of a kitten, and what might have been a piglet. Dan hit it again, and the entire body collapsed like an exploding gasbag. Then he grabbed Karen’s hand in a frantic blur of motion and was pulling her with him out the door. She held on to Jaime, and they ran down the porch steps and across the grass, along the driveway and the road and toward the main highway with the Halloween wind clutching around them.

 Dan looked back, saw nothing but darkness. Jaime shrieked in tune with the wind. The distant lights of other Essex houses glinted in the hills like cold stars.

 They reached the highway. Dan shouldered Jaime, and still they ran into the night, along the roadside where the high weeds caught at their ankles.

“Look!” Karen cried. “Somebody’s coming, Dan! Look!”

 He did. Headlights were approaching. Dan stood in the middle of the road, frantically waving. The vehicle—a gray Volkswagen van—began to slow down. At the wheel was a woman in a witch costume, and two children dressed like ghosts peered out the window. People from Barrimore Crossing! Dan realized. Thank God! “Help us!” he begged. “Please! We’ve got to get out of here!”

 “You in trouble?” the woman asked. “You have an accident or something?”

 “Yes! An accident! Please, get us to the police station in Barrimore Crossing! I’ll pay you! Just please get us there!”

 The woman paused. Then she said, “Okay. Climb in.” Dan pulled open the van's side door.

 They started off, the engine backfiring, toward Barrimore Crossing.

 “I don't see no accident,” the woman said. “You have a car wreck or what?”

 Dan shook his head. The two ghost-children were watching him over the front seat. In his arms, Jaime was dazed and shaking. “We're okay,” he managed to say to Karen, and took her hand. “We're safe now, honey.”

 And something wet dripped onto his cheek. He looked up at the van's ceiling.

The van had teeth.

Long rows of triangular, serrated teeth.

 As his mind cracked and he began to laugh, he saw the sticky fluid dripping down off the teeth, saw in the green glow of the instrument panel more teeth pushing up from the van's soft, wet gray sides and floorboard.

 His last coherent thought, as Karen's scream filled his head, was that the Devil sure could come up with one hell of a costume.

 “Trick-or-treat, Dan,” the shape at the wheel said.

 And the entire van smashed shut like a huge mouth, the teeth grinding down until bone and flesh were pulverized and unrecognizable.

 Then the van, looking more like a large shiny roach, scuttled off the road toward the Essex woods. It changed shape into something that would drive a man mad to behold—and then it was gone into the hills, with its bellyful of Halloween treats.

[rabbitcruiser]

National Banana Day 

Orange you glad I didn’t say banana? Enjoy some banana based treat like banana bread, a banana split, or even banana punch, and tell some terrible jokes.

National Banana Day is a bit like a heady mix of April Fool’s Day and Halloween (of course, without the trick or treating and vandalism) and with a helpful portion of healthy eating thrown in for good measure!

So, get ready to Go Bananas on National Banana Day!

History of National Banana Day

National Banana Day is a yearly event that is aimed at celebrating bananas in every conceivable sense of the word–because the banana is certainly a fruit worth celebrating!

While bananas are believed to have originated in Southeast Asia, mainly in India. They made their way west by Arab conquerors in 327 BC, and eventually bananas ended up in Europe. By the 1870s, bananas made their way to the Caribbean with missionaries, where the bananas were originally used for micro crops (which means growing one crop that helps another crop to grow). Eventually, though, bananas became a lucrative crop in their own right.

The popularity of bananas in the West grew throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. As they became more affordable and less exotic, bananas were added to special dishes like the banana split, or used in baking recipes like banana bread.

Regarding the origins of National Banana Day, it is known that every year students at many prestigious American universities use National Banana Day as a way of celebrating this humble fruit as a lunchbox standard. On this day, they eat and share weird and wonderful banana concoctions (banana punch, anyone?), they dress as bananas and they generally go a bit…well…nuts.

And bananas too, of course.

National Banana Day is the perfect day to find solace in this world-renowned fruit that is useful and beneficial on so many levels. Happy National Banana Day!

National Banana Day Timeline

327 BC Bananas are brought from East to West

Arab conquerors bring this yellow fruit when Alexander the Great sends his armies to descend upon India.

1516 Bananas make a debut in the Caribbean

Brought by a Portuguese monk missionary, Friar Thomas de Berlanga, bananas reach the New World.

1834 Mass production of bananas begins

Banana trees are planted and production begins on a larger scale, especially in the Caribbean.

1907 First Banana Split is made

At his restaurant in Wilmington, Ohio, Ernest R. Hazard creates this new ice cream treat, the Banana Split which he hopes will attract college students to his shop.

1930s Banana Bread is invented

The first Banana Bread recipe is popularized when baking soda comes on the market in the United States.

How to Celebrate National Banana Day

Celebrating National Banana Day seems like a great time to get creative and enjoy a big load of fun! After all, there aren’t many days in the year when it is allowed to legitimately goof off and also have a little fruit-based fun, so why not take a (banana) leaf out of the students’ book and go a little bit bananas today?

Consider these ideas for celebrating National Banana Day:

Make a Banana Treat

Get creative in the kitchen and enjoy what monkeys have known all along–the banana is a fabulous food! Try these delicious treats to eat alone or share with friends:

Banana Split. A classic American tradition, the banana split uses the two halves of a sliced banana, some scoops of ice cream (usually one of each vanilla, chocolate and strawberry), and toppings such as hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts and cherries.

Banana Bread. Although the same recipe will bake more quickly when poured into muffin tins, there is something special about a dense loaf of warm banana bread. No matter what shape they are in, this is a great way to use up bananas that have gotten a bit over-ripe or brown, because over ripe bananas are sweeter.

Bananas Flambe. This French Caribbean treat is made from peeled banana halves fried in oil and then coated with rum and sugar. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, of course, it makes a delightful and dramatic show of a simple food!

Chocolate Covered Bananas. Channel that inner Arrested Development character (Bluth family, anyone?) by freezing some bananas and dipping them into chocolate–add nuts too!

Host a Banana Party

Throwing a party for National Banana Day is a great way to observe and celebrate this occasion. And certainly it’s not hard to decorate with a banana theme! Just make sure everything is yellow and green, including paper plates, napkins, balloons, tablecloths and streamers.

For an activity that doubles as a snack, provide a chocolate dipping station (aka fondue) or chocolate fountain where guests can dip slices of banana. For extra fun, supply other items for dipping, such as sprinkles, small candies, or mini marshmallows.

Learn Fun Facts About Bananas

In honor of National Banana Day, it might be a fun idea to share some information and facts about bananas with family and friends! Here are some bits of trivia to get started with:

A banana is technically not a fruit, it’s really a berry! This has to do with the fact that the seeds are located inside the flesh rather than on the outside.

Because they contain so much of the isotope Potassium-40, bananas are technically radioactive. The good news is that they can’t harm a person unless they are eating around 700 or more bananas per day for their entire lifetime.

Bananas cannot be grown simply from a seed, which means they are technically “sterile”. Instead, in order to propagate bananas, a piece from another banana plant has to be split and then grown, sort of like cloning.

The growth of popularity of bananas can be partially attributed to Jules Verne, the American author who wrote about the fruit in his book Around the World in 80 Days, which brought them to the forefront of many people’s minds.

Try Some New Recipes for National Banana Day

Other treats that can be served at a banana party, or simply taken to the office to share with coworkers, include banana muffins or banana bread (same recipe, but muffins are faster to bake and a bit easier to serve). Bananas also make a delicious and healthy additive to milkshakes or smoothies, they can be sliced up and put on top of a bowl of cereal in the morning, or they can be mashed up and put into pancakes.

Banana cake, banana ice cream, banana splits or banana pudding are all delicious and delightful recipes that can be enjoyed in honor of National Banana Day. Or try out a classic frozen banana dipped in chocolate as mentioned above.

Another treat made with bananas was also rumored to be a favorite of the pop singer, Elvis Presley, which was the peanut butter and banana sandwich

Listen to a Banana Playlist

There is no better day than National Banana Day to get jamming with a fruit-focused playlist on Spotify or another music hosting website. Play it at the above-mentioned Banana Party or listen alone. Try out a few of these songs or add a few other creative ones:

Day O [The Banana Boat Song] (1956) by Harry Belafonte

Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas (1974) by Harry Chapin

Yes, We Have No Bananas (1923) by Louis Prima

Hollaback Girl (2004) Gwen Stefani

Apples and Banana (1985) by Raffi

Banana in Your Fruit Basket (1991) by Bo Carter

Apples, Peaches, Bananas and Pears (1967) by The Monkees

Tell Some Banana Jokes

Get a little silly and have a laugh (or groan) with friends or family using a variety of banana jokes like these:

What kind of key can open a banana? A Mon-key!

Why did the banana go to the doctor? It wasn’t peeling well.

Why are bananas never lonely? Because they come in bunches.

What’s the easiest way to make a banana split? Cut it in half!

What do bananas say when they answer the phone? “Yellow?”

National Banana Day FAQs

Is there a National Banana Day?

Yes! National Banana Day is the day that people all over choose to celebrate everything to do with this delicious and nutritious yellow fruit.

When is National Banana Day?

National Banana Day is celebrated on the third Wednesday of April each year, so the date changes with the calendar.

Are Bananas good for you?

Emphatically yes! Tasty and nutritious, bananas contain fiber, protein, potassium, vitamins, manganese and more.

Do Bananas grow on trees?

Well, sort of. Though they appear to be trees, the plants that bananas grow on are actually classified as herbs that form an underground stem, called a rhizome. But technically, it’s not a tree!

How to keep Bananas fresh?

Keep your bananas in a cool, dry place. To keep them from getting overripe, bananas can be stored in the refrigerator.

Source

[rabbitcruiser]

National Banana Day 

Orange you glad I didn’t say banana? Enjoy some banana based treat like banana bread, a banana split, or even banana punch, and tell some terrible jokes.

National Banana Day is a bit like a heady mix of April Fool’s Day and Halloween (of course, without the trick or treating and vandalism) and with a helpful portion of healthy eating thrown in for good measure!

So, get ready to Go Bananas on National Banana Day!

History of National Banana Day

National Banana Day is a yearly event that is aimed at celebrating bananas in every conceivable sense of the word–because the banana is certainly a fruit worth celebrating!

While bananas are believed to have originated in Southeast Asia, mainly in India. They made their way west by Arab conquerors in 327 BC, and eventually bananas ended up in Europe. By the 1870s, bananas made their way to the Caribbean with missionaries, where the bananas were originally used for micro crops (which means growing one crop that helps another crop to grow). Eventually, though, bananas became a lucrative crop in their own right.

The popularity of bananas in the West grew throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s. As they became more affordable and less exotic, bananas were added to special dishes like the banana split, or used in baking recipes like banana bread.

Regarding the origins of National Banana Day, it is known that every year students at many prestigious American universities use National Banana Day as a way of celebrating this humble fruit as a lunchbox standard. On this day, they eat and share weird and wonderful banana concoctions (banana punch, anyone?), they dress as bananas and they generally go a bit…well…nuts.

And bananas too, of course.

National Banana Day is the perfect day to find solace in this world-renowned fruit that is useful and beneficial on so many levels. Happy National Banana Day!

National Banana Day Timeline

327 BC Bananas are brought from East to West

Arab conquerors bring this yellow fruit when Alexander the Great sends his armies to descend upon India.

1516 Bananas make a debut in the Caribbean

Brought by a Portuguese monk missionary, Friar Thomas de Berlanga, bananas reach the New World.

1834 Mass production of bananas begins

Banana trees are planted and production begins on a larger scale, especially in the Caribbean.

1907 First Banana Split is made

At his restaurant in Wilmington, Ohio, Ernest R. Hazard creates this new ice cream treat, the Banana Split which he hopes will attract college students to his shop.

1930s Banana Bread is invented

The first Banana Bread recipe is popularized when baking soda comes on the market in the United States.

How to Celebrate National Banana Day

Celebrating National Banana Day seems like a great time to get creative and enjoy a big load of fun! After all, there aren’t many days in the year when it is allowed to legitimately goof off and also have a little fruit-based fun, so why not take a (banana) leaf out of the students’ book and go a little bit bananas today?

Consider these ideas for celebrating National Banana Day:

Make a Banana Treat

Get creative in the kitchen and enjoy what monkeys have known all along–the banana is a fabulous food! Try these delicious treats to eat alone or share with friends:

Banana Split. A classic American tradition, the banana split uses the two halves of a sliced banana, some scoops of ice cream (usually one of each vanilla, chocolate and strawberry), and toppings such as hot fudge, whipped cream, nuts and cherries.

Banana Bread. Although the same recipe will bake more quickly when poured into muffin tins, there is something special about a dense loaf of warm banana bread. No matter what shape they are in, this is a great way to use up bananas that have gotten a bit over-ripe or brown, because over ripe bananas are sweeter.

Bananas Flambe. This French Caribbean treat is made from peeled banana halves fried in oil and then coated with rum and sugar. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, of course, it makes a delightful and dramatic show of a simple food!

Chocolate Covered Bananas. Channel that inner Arrested Development character (Bluth family, anyone?) by freezing some bananas and dipping them into chocolate–add nuts too!

Host a Banana Party

Throwing a party for National Banana Day is a great way to observe and celebrate this occasion. And certainly it’s not hard to decorate with a banana theme! Just make sure everything is yellow and green, including paper plates, napkins, balloons, tablecloths and streamers.

For an activity that doubles as a snack, provide a chocolate dipping station (aka fondue) or chocolate fountain where guests can dip slices of banana. For extra fun, supply other items for dipping, such as sprinkles, small candies, or mini marshmallows.

Learn Fun Facts About Bananas

In honor of National Banana Day, it might be a fun idea to share some information and facts about bananas with family and friends! Here are some bits of trivia to get started with:

A banana is technically not a fruit, it’s really a berry! This has to do with the fact that the seeds are located inside the flesh rather than on the outside.

Because they contain so much of the isotope Potassium-40, bananas are technically radioactive. The good news is that they can’t harm a person unless they are eating around 700 or more bananas per day for their entire lifetime.

Bananas cannot be grown simply from a seed, which means they are technically “sterile”. Instead, in order to propagate bananas, a piece from another banana plant has to be split and then grown, sort of like cloning.

The growth of popularity of bananas can be partially attributed to Jules Verne, the American author who wrote about the fruit in his book Around the World in 80 Days, which brought them to the forefront of many people’s minds.

Try Some New Recipes for National Banana Day

Other treats that can be served at a banana party, or simply taken to the office to share with coworkers, include banana muffins or banana bread (same recipe, but muffins are faster to bake and a bit easier to serve). Bananas also make a delicious and healthy additive to milkshakes or smoothies, they can be sliced up and put on top of a bowl of cereal in the morning, or they can be mashed up and put into pancakes.

Banana cake, banana ice cream, banana splits or banana pudding are all delicious and delightful recipes that can be enjoyed in honor of National Banana Day. Or try out a classic frozen banana dipped in chocolate as mentioned above.

Another treat made with bananas was also rumored to be a favorite of the pop singer, Elvis Presley, which was the peanut butter and banana sandwich

Listen to a Banana Playlist

There is no better day than National Banana Day to get jamming with a fruit-focused playlist on Spotify or another music hosting website. Play it at the above-mentioned Banana Party or listen alone. Try out a few of these songs or add a few other creative ones:

Day O [The Banana Boat Song] (1956) by Harry Belafonte

Thirty Thousand Pounds of Bananas (1974) by Harry Chapin

Yes, We Have No Bananas (1923) by Louis Prima

Hollaback Girl (2004) Gwen Stefani

Apples and Banana (1985) by Raffi

Banana in Your Fruit Basket (1991) by Bo Carter

Apples, Peaches, Bananas and Pears (1967) by The Monkees

Tell Some Banana Jokes

Get a little silly and have a laugh (or groan) with friends or family using a variety of banana jokes like these:

What kind of key can open a banana? A Mon-key!

Why did the banana go to the doctor? It wasn’t peeling well.

Why are bananas never lonely? Because they come in bunches.

What’s the easiest way to make a banana split? Cut it in half!

What do bananas say when they answer the phone? “Yellow?”

Source