what is sweetest day

Sweetest Day is a holiday that is celebrated in the Midwestern United States, in parts of the Northeastern United States, in Arizona, and in Florida on the third Saturday in October. It is a day to share romantic deeds or expressions, and acts of charity and kindness. Sweetest Day is an original American holiday not based on any groups religious tradition. The first Sweetest Day was on October 10, 1921, in Cleveland. The Cleveland Plain Dealers edition of October 8, 1922, 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. Sweetest Day has also been referred to as a "Hallmark holiday" or a "concocted promotion" created by the candy industry solely to increase sales of sweets. On Sweetest Day, people give a card with a sweet message to someone they appreciate, and little gifts of candy and other sweets are shared.