DECEMBER 23, 2013 – NATIONAL PFEFFERNUSSE DAY – NATIONAL ROOTS DAY

           NATIONAL PFEFFERNUSSE DAY

December 23 of each year celebrates the delicious and loved by many across the country, pfeffernusse cookie as it is National Pfeffernusse Day.
Very popular around the holidays, pfeffernusse are fluffy cookies made with ground nuts and spices and covered in powdered sugar.
The exact origin in unknown however the Dutch believe that pfeffernusse (or pepernoten) are linked to the feast of Sinterklaas, which is celebrated on December 5 in the Netherlands and December 6 in Germany and Belgium.  This holiday is when children receive gifts from St. Nicholas, who is partially the inspiration for the Santa Claus tradition. 
Over time, many bakers have created their own pfeffernusse recipes.  Traditional recipes included various nuts such as almonds and walnuts.  Some modern recipes exclude nuts altogether along with the black pepper, retaining only cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice and cardamom as flavoring.  Molasses and honey are often times used to sweeten the cookie
To celebrate National Pfeffernusse Day, try one of the following “tried and true” pfeffernusse recipes:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/pfeffernusse/
http://www.food.com/recipe/pfeffernusse-german-pepper-nut-cookies-79103
NATIONAL PFEFFERNUSSE DAY HISTORY
Within our research, we were unable to find the creator or origin of National Pfeffernusse Day, an “unofficial” national holiday.

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                 NATIONAL ROOTS DAY

National Roots Day is celebrated annually on December 23 across the United States.

National Roots Day encourages us to look into our heritage, families, family history and ancestry and as many people are gathering together at this time of the year, during the holidays, it is a good time to ask questions of other family members about ones roots.  It is quite possible that a grandparent, parent , aunt or uncle has a family tree they could bring out to begin with.
It is often very interesting to learn about the lives of our ancestors; where they came from, their struggles, their accomplishments and etc.  It is a combination of everyone that is on the family tree that makes us the person that we are today.
NATIONAL ROOTS DAY HISTORY