Twelve Pizza Facts

Ancient Greeks and Egyptians covered flat-breads with toppings and are considered the real originators of the tasty dish.

Modern Pizza originated in 1738 in Naples, Italy when people covered focaccia (Italian bread with olive oil and herbs) with tomatoes. Cheese was added as a topping about a hundred years later.

Frozen pizzas were introduced during the 1950s.

The first online pizza purchase was from Pizza Hut in 1994.

Ninety-three percent of Americans eat pizza at least once a month.

Saturday night is the biggest night of the week for eating pizza worldwide.

More pizza is consumed during the week of the Super Bowl than any other time of the year.

In 2001, Pizza Hut paid the Russians one million US dollars to deliver a six inch pizza to the international space station.

Thin crust pizza remains the most popular crust across the world. More than 61 percent of all pizza orders are for thin crust.

Some popular pizza toppings in Japan are squid and Mayo Jaga (mayonnaise, potato, and bacon)

The world's largest pizza was constructed in Italy in 2012 in Italy. It contained 19,800 pounds of flour, 10,000 pounds of tomato sauce, 8,800 pounds of mozzarella cheese, 1,488 pounds of margarine, 551 pounds of rock salt, 220 pounds of lettuce and 55 pounds of vinegar"; it weighed in at 51,257 pounds, and took 48 hours to cook. (According to the World Record Academy)

Over five billion pizzas are sold worldwide each year.

Dog Days of Summer

The earliest reference to this expression goes back to the Ancient Egyptians. They noted that the rising of the star Sirius began the hottest part of the summer. The star’s hieroglyph is a dog. Sirius would appear in Egypt, after about a 70 day absence, just before the season where the Nile typically floods, so it is thought the star’s hieroglyphic symbol 'watchdog'.

Romans and Greeks also referred to dog days and would often make sacrifices to Sirius, including sacrificing dogs to appease Sirius with the hope it would result in a mild summer and protect crops from scorching.

Sirius is the brightest star in the Canis Major (Latin for “Greater Dog”) constellation.

Facts about Mistletoe

The name comes from the fact mistletoe starts from bird droppings made from the red or white berries. It is a parasitic plant and roots to the branches of trees. Thus “mistle” or “missel”, which meant “dung”, and “toe”, which came from the Anglo-Saxon “tan” meaning “twig.” There are over 900 species of mistletoe and it grows on a wide variety of trees.

Ancient Greeks considered the plant an aphrodisiac and believed it aided in fertility. Norseman believed mistletoe was a plant of peace and when enemies met under the mistletoe they were obliged to stop fighting for at least a day. Eventually, this spawned a tradition to hang mistletoe over the doorway for peace and good luck.

It became associated with Christmas from the tradition of hanging mistletoe in one’s home to bring good luck and peace to those within the house. It hung year round and was replaced each Christmas eve or at New Year.

During the 16th century in Britain, it became popular to create a ball of mistletoe hung as a Christmas decoration. Couples standing under the mistletoe were to kiss if the mistletoe ball still had berries. For each kiss, one berry would be taken from the ball. Once all the berries were gone, all the “luck” was drained out and it became bad luck to kiss beneath it.

Mistletoe leaves and young twigs are used by herbalists, and it is popular in Europe, especially in Germany, for treating circulatory and respiratory system problems.