Pop, Pop, Hooray! It's Popcorn Day!

On January 19th, the world celebrated a snack that is literally 5,600 years old—proof that humans have loved annoying their neighbours with loud, crunchy noises for millennia. Here is the "a-maizing" (and mostly true) story of how this explosive little kernel became a movie theatre king.

Long before it was covered in fake butter, popcorn was serious business. Aztec Indians in the 16th century used it for food, but also as decoration, wearing popcorn necklaces and headdresses to honor Tlaloc, their god of maize and fertility. Imagine walking into a party and your friend is wearing a necklace of popped corn. Fashion.

Early Spanish explorers in Mexico were baffled by this corn that turned into "white flowers" when heated. In the 1800s, Americans in the US adopted it, but they were weird about it—eating it for breakfast with milk and sugar.

The real hero was Charles Cretors, who invented the first commercial steam-powered popper in 1885. He started putting these machines on horse-drawn wagons in Chicago, essentially creating the first street-food pop-up shop.

You might think popcorn has always been at the movies, but you are wrong! In the 1920s, movie theater owners banned it. They thought it was too messy, and the sound of munching ruined the hush of the silent films.

But during the Great Depression, people were broke, and popcorn was cheap. Savvy vendors started selling it outside the theaters, and theater owners—realizing they were losing money—eventually let them in.

Then, in 1949, popcorn was temporarily banned again because it was too loud. But it was too late—popcorn had already won the war.

Why January 19th?

The mystery of who actually picked January 19th as National Popcorn Day is still unknown, though it often coincides with the Super Bowl, America’s biggest snacking day. It is a day to celebrate the "old maids" (the unpopped kernels at the bottom) and the fact that a single kernel can shoot three feet in the air.