September 20th, 2016 is National Punch Day.
Is this a day observed solely to commemorate the event of a boxing round? A day dedicated to the common office tool used in creating holes and shapes in sheets of paper? A date marked as one designated for cheesy-jokes’ central punchlines? Or perhaps, twenty-four hours set to honor the sweet concoction-of-a-beverage we’ve come to know and love as “fruit punch”? To be entirely transparent, I wasn’t able to draw a conclusive answer based on the puzzlingly-vague given title for this national day. But, I am sure of one thing… that my favorite of the four punches would have to be the latter!
The word punch is of the Sanskrit origin, meaning “five”, in reference to the five ingredients: alcohol, sugar, lemon, water and tea or spices. As early as the 17th-century, fruit punch was enjoyed by peoples of many continents after being brought from India to England by the British East India Company. The first record of the term “punch” in British documentation was in 1632, though it wasn’t until 1655 that the “modern” punch originated in Jamaica. Talk about “cultural diffusion” (shout-out to AP World)!
While we’re on the topic of “diffusion”, let us be reminded that “diffusion”– the even distribution of particles– of powder is one method of creating fruit punch (who would’ve guessed that fruit punch could reinforce both history and science?). However, you don’t have to bear the mind of a scientist to be conscious of this universal truth: home-made punch beats store-bought powder any day!
If you find yourself torn between two punch favorites to celebrate today, here are four of our favorite recipes for fruit punch to help you decide:
1. Floating Island Punch, here.
2. Orange Dream Punch, here.
3. Cherry Limeade Punch, here.
4. Pretty Pink Punch, here.
If the above fruit-punch recipes weren’t exactly what you had been looking for in reading this article, hopefully this punch-related joke will compensate:
“A teenage boy is getting ready to take his girlfriend to the prom. First he goes to rent a tux, but there’s a long tux line at the shop and it takes forever.
Next, he has to get some flowers, so he heads over to the florist and there’s a huge flower line there. He waits forever but eventually gets the flowers.
Then he heads out to rent a limo. Unfortunately, there’s a large limo line at the rental office, but he’s patient and gets the job done.
Finally, the day of the prom comes. The two are dancing happily and his girlfriend is having a great time. When the song is over, she asks him to get her some punch, so he heads over to the punch table and there’s no punchline.”
