Holiday pops by OC

COSTA MESA — Carolyn Charkey hadn’t heard of National Popcorn Day when she arrived at the Orange County Market Place Saturday morning — but since she got a free bag of popcorn, she was happy to celebrate.

“I wasn’t surprised,” the Fort Collins, Colorado resident said as she stood in line by the popcorn stand.

“There’s a National Paper Match Day, a national day and week and month for everything.”

The origins of National Popcorn Day appear to be a mystery.

Even the website www.popcorn.org acknowledges ignorance of how the holiday got started — but the tradition has spread across the country, to the point where a Google search turned up 3,580 hits.

A web search of other bizarre January holidays also discovered Squirrel Appreciation Day on Jan. 21, Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day on Jan. 22 and Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day on Jan. 28.

Market Place officials may not have known about National Nothing Day on Jan. 16, but, technically, they honored the holiday by doing nothing to celebrate it.

Regardless, the swap meet commemorated National Popcorn Day by setting up two free popcorn stands and stocking up on nearly two dozen 50-pound bags of corn and many gallons of Pop-All liquid butter.

As the morning passed, greasy fingerprints lined merchandise around the grounds, and plump yellow kernels littered the pavement.

Lacey Ferris, the assistant food service manager for the Market Place, served popcorn at one of the stands Saturday morning and confessed to snacking on an occasional kernel.

“I love popcorn,” she said. “I’m not sure after today, though.”

Diane Crandall of Laguna Niguel speculated on what offbeat holiday she would create as she waited in line for her first bag of the day.

“It’d probably be National Beer Day,” she said. “I don’t know if there already is one. But I don’t think they’d ever give out free beer.”

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at michael.miller@latimes.com.