When Did the Bagel Become So American That There is Now A National Bagel Day January 15 of Each Year

In my family, eating a bagel for breakfast is a staple of our diet. On holidays, such as break fast after Yom Kippur ends, we celebrate by eating bagels. When I found out that there is a National Bagel Day in the United States, and bagel bakeries are now a big business everywhere here, I thought I would share the following with my grandchildren and all of you!

What is a bagel?

Bagels are ring shaped bread rolls, one of the few breads that are boiled and then baked, which creates a soft inside white keeping a crisp outside. It is typically made from flour, yeast, salt, and water. And, unlike many things created nearly five hundred years ago, bagels are remarkably unchanged today.

How many bagels are eaten in the United States today?

According to statistical data, approximately 40% of Americans were reported to eat bagels at least once a week. The average American consumes around 85 bagels per year. The United States bagel market size reached an estimated $5.97 billion in 2025. Although bagel consumption is especially high in the Northeast, states like Hawaii and Utah have the next

highest averages per person. Who would have guessed that?

What is the history of the bagel?

Bagels have a long and highly documented history that begins with the Jewish families of Poland in the 1600s. The first known mention of the Yiddish word bagel, was the Polish word bajgiel, in the “community Regulations” of the city of Krakow in 1610, as the food given as a gift to women in childbirth. According to Wikipedia, the bagel may have been

derived from German pretzels brought by Jewish immigrants to Poland, which in German bagel means ring” or “bracelet.” Since the middle of the 19th century, bagels have been sold in London, England.

Polish-Jewish immigrants introduced the bagel to the United States. Throughout New York City, making and selling bagels became thriving businesses. As early as 1907, bagel bakers created the International Bagel Bakers’ Union Local 338, which for decades held contracts with nearly all bagel bakeries for its workers in and around the city. Until the 1960s, when

a man by the name of Daniel Thompson invented the bagel maker, bakeries made bagels solely by hand.

The bagel became more common throughout the United States during the last quarter of the 20th century. Credit for the bagel’s spread across the country goes in part to the efforts of bagel baker Harry Lender, his son, Murray Lender, and Florence Sender, whose efforts led to the automated production and distribution of frozen bagels in the1960s. Murray Lender

also invented pre-slicing the bagel. Lender’s Bagels are still sold in supermarkets in the United States.

National Bagel Day

National Bagel Day in the United States is January 15 as of 2020.

Previously, the bagel shared February 9 as bagel and lox day. 


The most popular bagel is the everything bagel, featuring a mix of poppy seeds, sesame seeds, garlic, onion and salt, followed by plain, sesame and cinnamon raisin. If you are ambitious and have lots of time, celebrate National Bagel Day by making your own dozen homemade bagels. See, “Our Ultimate Guide to Making Bagels,” by Claire Saffitz, New York Times, September 9, 2025.

Or do as most of us, pick up a dozen of your favorite bagels at your local bagel store on January 15, 2026 to celebrate National Bagel Day with those you love with

Joy,

Mema