When is Sweetest Day 2024? What to know about the holiday

Sweetest Day, the annual holiday with Midwestern roots that involves celebrating the lovers, family and friends in your life, is coming soon.

Ready to show some love? Here's what to know.

Sweetest Day is celebrated annually on the third Saturday in October. It's a day to share romantic deeds, expressions, acts of charity and kindness.

This year, it falls on Saturday, Oct. 19.

According to National Today, Sweetest Day was first celebrated in Cleveland in 1922, when multiple candy companies distributed more than 20,000 boxes of candy to the city's vulnerable, including "newsboys, orphans, old folks and the poor."

Eventually, the idea spread from Cleveland to the rest of Ohio and other Midwestern states, including Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Michigan. There were several attempts to start a Sweetest Day and Candy Day in New York City in 1922, but the celebration is still most popular in the Great Lakes region.

Hallmark also attributes Sweetest Day's start to Herbert Birch Kingston, a Cleveland candy company employee "who wanted to bring happiness to the lives of those who often were forgotten."

"In the early 1930s, movie stars got into the act. Ann Pennington distributed candy to 2,200 Cleveland newspaper boys, and Theda Bara gave candy to theater-goers and patients in Cleveland hospitals," Hallmark's website says.

In 1937, the National Confectioners Association launched a movement to rank Sweetest Day with other nationally accepted holidays like Mother's Day, Father's Day and Valentine's Day, but the effort fell flat.

The day isn't federally recognized, but it's observed by people in states and regions across the U.S.

In the U.S., Sweetest Day is mainly celebrated in the Midwest, parts of the Northeast and Florida. It's most popular around Cleveland and Detroit.

The holiday isn't aimed at any gender.

Today, it's seen as a chance to express love or admiration for the people in your life, whether it's family, friends, romantic partners or others.

But, in the Midwest, where the holiday was popularized, Sweetest Day has become synonymous with Boyfriend Day, according to National Today. In the region, Sweetest Day is celebrated primarily by women who treat the men in their lives with "gifts of candy and other sweet gestures."

Sweetest Day is celebrated on the third Saturday of October and those who participate can express love or appreciation toward anyone. Valentine's Day is Feb. 14 and is typically seen as more of a celebration of romantic love.

Like Valentine's Day, you can give loved ones in your life chocolates, candies or cards, but the holiday has an emphasis on helping others in need, either with material gifts or through moral support. Consider reaching out to a friend in need or even donating toward a worthy cause, like Hurricane Helene and Milton relief efforts.