Today is National Lollipop Day!

From Holiday Insights.com:

George Smith, owner of Bradley Smith Company, invented and patented the Lollipop in 1908.  Legend has it, that George named the Lollipop after his favorite racehorse ” Lolly Pop”.

The Racine Confectioner’s Machinery Company claims to have created National Lollipop Day.

There is a little controversy as to who first created the automated Lollipop machine. The Racine Confectioner’s Machinery Company claims to be the first to create a machine to automatically make Lollipops. Their machine made 40 lollipops at a time. Sam Born of California also claims to have created the first automated lollipop machine, in 1916. It was called the “Born Sucker Machine”.

We found no congressional record, nor presidential proclamation, which is required to make this a “national” day.

How to Celebrate National Lollipop Day:

Eat Lollipops: Go out and buy a bag full of lollipops. Then, have a couple over the course of the day. Kids (and adults), don’t eat too many. We don’t  want you to get an upset stomach.

Play the Lollipop Game: Drill holes into a thick, flat board. Paint the bottom portion of a couple lollipop sticks. Stick the lollipops at random, into the holes in the board. Each player gets to select a lollipop. If they pull the one with the painted stick, they win a prize!

Do some science: Count how many licks you take on a Tootsie Pop to reach the Tootsie Roll center. Purdue University, the University of Michigan, and Swarthmore Junior High School have conducted studies on this very project and each has reached a different answer. The world may never know the true answer.

Make your own lollipops! Here is one recipe we found, there are many others.

Learn more about lollipops here.