The Story Behind National Onion Ring Day

Most people, when I tell them I founded National Onion Ring Day, kind of just nod politely — the same way you'd react if someone told you they once met a guy who claimed to invent high-fives.

But this past June 22nd, something weird happened. A friend didn’t shrug it off. She froze.

“Wait… is that TRUE? I need PROOF.”

So I did some digging. And to my surprise, this silly joke I started years ago has become real. There’s a hashtag. There are tweets. There are people actually celebrating it.

On June 22, #NationalOnionRingDay gets more traction than running through the woods and pickled pig’s feet.

But let’s rewind. The origin story is even more ridiculous than the holiday.

The Day I Proposed With an Onion Ring

I was volunteering at a one-week camp for people with disabilities, and I developed a crush on another counselor. It was the last day of camp, and fate — or the cafeteria — served us onion rings.

So naturally, I did the only logical thing:

I proposed to her with the smallest, saddest onion ring I could find.

To her eternal credit, she said yes — to the joke, not the marriage — and we decided on the spot that our fake wedding would be held on National Onion Ring Day.

I got home, opened up my clunky pre-iPhone-era laptop, and searched for the date.

Nothing.

No holiday. No love for the onion ring. Outrageous.

So I made one. Just… declared it. June 22.

I founded the National Onion Ring Day Association, made a website, and posted a wiki article that got deleted faster than an AOL away message.

But it was done. The deed was ringed.

The Internet Did Its Thing

For years, I forgot about it. My only real contribution since then was listing it (as a joke) on my Amazon author page. But the internet? Oh, it remembered.

Somewhere between 2006 and now, National Onion Ring Day started showing up on “weird holiday” sites. People started posting. Celebrating. Honoring the humble fried loop.

And that’s when I realized something weirdly beautiful:

On the internet, even your dumbest ideas can grow legs and dance when you're not looking.

So yes, National Onion Ring Day is real.

Yes, I started it.

And yes, I’m as surprised as you are that this wasn’t just a phase — it’s a golden-fried legacy.

Happy #NationalOnionRingDay.

Celebrate accordingly. Preferably with ketchup.

Appendix: The Evidence

Exhibit A - Search Trends

Search trends confirm that National Onion Ring Day wasn’t gaining real traction until after 2011 — years after I first coined it in 2006.

Exhibit B - Google Group

The founding of the National Onion Ring Day Association and the setting of the June 22 date are documented in a Google Group thread from 2006. (Yes, I was using Google Groups like it was Reddit before Reddit existed.)