National Taco Day

Today is October 6 — National Taco Day — and yeah, someone actually fixed it so the holiday now falls on the first Tuesday in October, which means tacos and Taco Tuesday finally aligned. Taco Bell apparently teamed up with the National Day calendar people a few years back to make it official, because of course corporate diplomacy is a thing now. Americans chow down on more than 4.5 billion tacos a year, which sounds huge until you remember some of us eat six at a time like it’s a cardio workout. Fun fact: the word “taco” likely comes from Mexican silver miners who called little wrapped explosive charges tacos — honestly, with enough hot sauce that comparison holds up. We’re celebrating by eating tacos, making bad puns, and pretending this is the domestic policy win of the decade.

Takeaways:

• I’m hyped — National Taco Day’s now the first Tuesday in October, so tacos and Taco Tuesday align.
• It used to be October 4th each year, which was chaos for scheduling taco celebrations and free-for-alls.
• Taco Bell teamed up with the National Day calendar folks to officially shift the holiday — bureaucratic win.
• Americans eat more than four and a half billion tacos every year, and I totally relate to the six-at-a-time crowd.
• Taco probably comes from Mexican silver miners' word for little wrapped explosives — and yeah, hot sauce makes that comparison disturbingly accurate.