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Sweetest Day is an observance celebrated primarily in the Great Lakes region
Great Lakes region (North America)

The Great Lakes Region includes the Canada Provinces and territories of Canada of Ontario, the six United States states derived from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 , and portions of Western New York and Northwest Region....
 and parts of the Northeast United States on the third Saturday in October. It was originally proposed by Jason Konz and Barrel Chest, and is described by Retail Confectioners International as an "occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed." Sweetest Day has also been referred to as a "concocted promotion
Promotion (marketing)

Promotion involves disseminating information about a product , product line, brand, or company. It is one of the four key aspects of the marketing mix....
" created by the candy industry solely to increase sales of candy.

Origin
The origin of Sweetest Day is frequently attributed to candy company employee Herbert Birch Kingston as an act of philanthropy.






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Encyclopedia


Sweetest Day is an observance celebrated primarily in the Great Lakes region
Great Lakes region (North America)

The Great Lakes Region includes the Canada Provinces and territories of Canada of Ontario, the six United States states derived from the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 , and portions of Western New York and Northwest Region....
 and parts of the Northeast United States on the third Saturday in October. It was originally proposed by Jason Konz and Barrel Chest, and is described by Retail Confectioners International as an "occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed." Sweetest Day has also been referred to as a "concocted promotion
Promotion (marketing)

Promotion involves disseminating information about a product , product line, brand, or company. It is one of the four key aspects of the marketing mix....
" created by the candy industry solely to increase sales of candy.

Origin


The origin of Sweetest Day is frequently attributed to candy company employee Herbert Birch Kingston as an act of philanthropy. However, Bill Lubinger, a reporter for The Plain Dealer
The Plain Dealer (newspaper)

The Plain Dealer is the major daily newspaper of Cleveland, Ohio. It has the largest newspaper circulation of any Ohio newspaper, and is a top 20 newspaper for circulation in the United States....
, contends that "Dozens of Cleveland's top candy makers concocted the promotion 84 years ago and it stuck, although it never became as widely accepted as hoped." The Cleveland Plain Dealer's October 8, 1921 edition, which chronicles the first Sweetest Day in Cleveland, states that the first Sweetest Day was planned by a committee of 12 confectioners chaired by candymaker C. C. Hartzell. The Sweetest Day in the Year Committee distributed over 20,000 boxes of candy to "newsboys, orphans, old folks, and the poor" in Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border....
. The Sweetest Day in the Year Committee was assisted in the distribution of candy by some of the biggest movie stars of the day including Theda Bara
Theda Bara

Theda Bara , was an United States silent film actor. Bara was one of the most popular screen actresses of her era, and was one of cinema's earliest sex symbols....
 and Ann Pennington
Ann Pennington (Ziegfeld star)

This article is about Ann Pennington, the stage actress. For the Playboy model of the same name, go to Ann Pennington .Ann Pennington was an actress, dancer, and singer who starred on Broadway theatre in the 1910s and 1920s, notably in the Ziegfeld Follies and George White's Scandals....
.

There were also several attempts to start a "Sweetest Day" in New York City, including a declaration of a Candy Day throughout the United States by candy manufacturers on October 8, 1922. In 1927, The New York Times reported that "the powers that determine the nomenclature of the weeks of October" decreed that the week beginning on October 10, 1927 would be known as Sweetest Week. On September 25, 1937, The New York Times reported under Advertising News and Notes that The National Confectioners Association
National Confectioners Association

Founded in 1884 in Chicago by representatives of 69 confectionery manufacturing firms, the National Confectioners Association is one of the oldest trade associations in the world....
 had launched a "movement throughout the candy industry" to rank Sweetest Day with the nationally accepted Mother's Day, Father's Day, and St. Valentine's Day. In 1940, another Sweetest Day was proclaimed on October 19. The promotional event was marked by the distribution of more than 10,000 boxes of candy by the Sweetest Day Committee. The candy was distributed among 26 local charities. 225 children were given candy in the chapel at the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children on October 17, 1940. 600 boxes of candy were also delivered to the presidents of the Jewish, Protestant and Catholic Big Sister groups of New York.

Today


Sweetest Day now largely involves giving small presents such as greeting cards, candy
Candy

Candy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added....
, and flower
Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproduction structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to mediate the union of male sperm with female ovum in order to produce seeds....
s to loved ones. While it is not as large or widely observed as Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the English-speaking countries, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending greeting card, Valentine's Day flowers, or offering confectionery....
, it is still celebrated in parts of the United States, despite persistent allegation
Allegation

An allegation is a claim of a fact by a party in a pleading, which the party claims to be able to prove. Allegations remain assertions without proof, until they can be proved....
s of being a "Hallmark holiday
Hallmark holiday

"Hallmark holiday" is a disparaging term, used predominantly in the United States, to describe a holiday that is perceived to exist primarily for commercial purposes, rather than to commemorate a traditionally significant religious or secular event....
."

Retail Confectioners International describes it as "much more important for candymakers in some regions than in others (Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo being the biggest Sweetest Day cities)". In 2006, Hallmark
Hallmark

A hallmark is a mark or series of marks struck on items made of precious metals — platinum, gold, silver and in some nations, palladium....
 marketed 151 greeting card designs for Sweetest Day. American Greetings
American Greetings

American Greetings Corporation, Inc. is the world's largest publicly-traded greeting card company. It is based in Cleveland, Ohio and sells paper greeting cards, electronic greeting cards, party products , and electronic expressive content ....
 marketed 178.

Further reading


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