Bread on bread day?

Yesterday I introduced 'Noodle Day', which is on the 11th of each month. The heading has given it away, but guess what day the 12th of the month is? Yes, bread day! Or 'pan no hi' 「パンの日」 in Japanese. They call bread 'pan' in Japan from the Portuguese "pão". If you live in Japan you may have noticed that various bakeries have special offers on the 12th of the month. Now you know why (if you didn't already)! 

The anniversary was started more than 30 years ago, in March 1983, by the 'Bread Food Promotion Council' located in Chuo ward in Tokyo. The council work to popularize and promote bread and related foods. They must be doing a good job: bread is very popular in Japan from what I can tell!

Bread is often eaten with vegetables or meat in it, such as in sandwiches, hot dogs, and hamburgers. There are also variouos sweet breads.In addition, French bread, bagels, croissants, Irish scones, German pretzels, Mexican tortillas and Italian focaccia to name but a few. Japan has some of its own unique breads too, such as melon bread, curry bread and red bean paste bread. White bread is eaten as a staple food here and it is even served as part of school lunch at least once a week. 

The 12th was chosen as the designated date to celebrate bread, because reportedly the very first bread baked in Japan was on April 12th 1842. Interestingly, it was first baked to be "provision bread", a portable ration, for soldiers in the military. And April 12th annually is "Bread Memorial Day" , pan no kinenbi「パンの記念日」. 

Will you have some bread for bread day today!?