Doughnut aficionados might be delighted to know that there are two different days dedicated to doughnuts. There is National Donut Day – a holiday celebrated on the first Friday of every June, and there’s National Doughnut Day, celebrated on November 5th every year.

Regardless of whether a person celebrates just one of these holidays or both, there is one certain thing: Doughnuts (or donuts, as they are spelled by popular culture) are a treat that just about everyone enjoys.

The History of National Doughnut Day

Since there are two National Doughnut Days, it’s probably a good idea to talk about how each one started. We’ll start with the one that falls on the first Friday of every June. This holiday began during World War I when the Salvation Army dispatched over 250 women to France’s front lines to deliver food to the soldiers.

When the women arrived in France, they noticed that it was very easy for them to fry up donuts in army helmets, and that the shape of the helmet allowed up to seven donuts at a time to be fried. Twenty years later, in 1938, as the Salvation Army began to look for ways to raise awareness and funds for the causes they support, they decided to create a National Donut Day to honor the women who delivered donuts to troops.

As a result, National Donut Day was created. The second National Doughnut Day, the one that falls on November 5th, is a bit harder to find information about. That’s because no one really knows the origins of this holiday.

Mentions of it go back to copies of Ladies’ Home Journal printed during the 1930s, but there aren’t many more mentions of it beyond that. Some people have speculated that the day was probably created by a retail outlet to drive more customers to their Veterans’ Day sales, but no one knows for sure.

The History of Doughnuts

Although no one knows for certain when doughnuts were invented, they are mentioned as far back as 1809. This is when Washington Irving mentioned in the book “A History of New York—From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty,” otherwise known as Diedrich Knickerbocker’s History of New York, a dessert called dough-nuts.

This dessert consisted of sweetened dough that was fried in hog’s fat and was known both as doughnuts and as olykoeks. As such, it can probably be stated that doughnuts were first brought to the U.S. by Dutch immigrants.

How Is National Doughnut Day Celebrated?

As many people will probably note, National Doughnut Day (or is it days?) is usually celebrated by a person enjoying their favorite treat. Regardless of whether it’s the June holiday or the November holiday, many doughnut chains also give away doughnuts on both of these days.