The hot fudge sundae is an ice cream treat that stirs childhood memories of warm summer days and time spent with family for many people. That’s probably why someone has decided to give it its own holiday, a holiday known as Hot Fudge Sundae Day, celebrated on July 25th every year. And might we add that the middle of July is probably the perfect time for this holiday, as July is typically one of the hottest months of the year.

The History Of The Hot Fudge Sundae Day

It can be difficult, if not impossible, to locate the origins of a particular food item’s history, as was the case with this holiday. No matter how hard we searched, we couldn’t uncover who or when this holiday was invented. That’s why we’ve decided to turn our attention to the subject of this holiday: the hot fudge sundae. In this section, we’re going to briefly cover the history of this holiday.

As we researched the history of the hot fudge sundae, we soon realized that this ice cream treat doesn’t have just one origin story but several. Several different localities claim to be the birthplace of this dessert, so for completeness and accuracy, we’ve decided to list a few of them. It will be up to our readers to decide which one of the following origin stories is most likely.

The first place that claims to be the birthplace of the sundae is Plainfield, Illinois. According to a popular story, the sundae was created by a druggist named Mr. Sonntag. According to the story, he created the dish to give his patrons something different, and he named it after himself, calling it Sonntag’s Famous Soda. Since his name meant “Sunday” in German, people began calling it Sunday, and eventually, that was changed to the sundae.

Another story claims that the ice cream sundae was invented in Two Rivers, Wisconsin, in 1881. This story claims that this dessert was first created when George Hallauer asked the owner of Berner’s Soda Fountain to drizzle some hot chocolate syrup over his ice cream. According to this story, he began to sell these desserts for a nickel apiece, but only on Sunday. Unfortunately, over the years, there have been a few suggestions that this story isn’t accurate.

The last origin story places the invention of the ice cream sundae in Evanston, Illinois, during the end of the 19th century. According to this story, Evanston, Illinois, passed a Blue Law in 1890 that made selling ice cream sodas on Sunday illegal. To comply with this law, a clever drug store operator served ice cream with a syrup of the customer’s choice and ditched the soda. This brought the dish into compliance with the law and created a new dessert sensation at the same time.

Celebrating Hot Fudge Sundae Day

Celebrating this holiday is as easy as heading to your local ice cream shop and ordering a hot fudge sundae or creating one at home. Regardless of how you celebrate it, however, just be sure to use the hashtag #NationalHotFudgeSundaeDay on your social media accounts and let everyone know that you’re enjoying this sweet holiday.