When: July 7
National Strawberry Sundae Day celebrates the combination of vanilla ice cream and fresh strawberries — a pairing that works because acid and sweetness in the fruit cut through the fat of the cream. The sundae itself has a fascinating origin: it was invented as a workaround for a Sunday ordinance banning ice cream sodas, and the spelling was changed to avoid religious offense.
The ice cream sundae was invented to circumvent a law banning ice cream sodas on Sundays — a puritan ordinance that accidentally created one of America's most beloved desserts.
Two American cities have been arguing for over a century about who invented the ice cream sundae. Ithaca, New York, claims a Sunday in April 1892, when a reverend asked for ice cream with cherry syrup at a local drugstore. Two Rivers, Wisconsin, claims 1881, when a customer asked druggist Ed Berners to pour chocolate sauce over his ice cream. Neither city has relented. Neither will. What both stories share is the context that explains them: "blue laws" in many American towns prohibited the sale of soda water on Sundays, on the grounds that carbonated beverages were frivolous pleasures incompatible with the Sabbath. Ice cream sodas — the popular soda fountain drink — were banned one day a week. Ice cream with sauce, but no soda, technically complied with the law. The sundae was invented as a legal workaround for puritanical Sunday ordinances, which is exactly the kind of American ingenuity the founding fathers probably had in mind. The name changed from "Sunday" to "sundae" reportedly...