National Pretzel Day: RHOA NeNe Leakes Helps Pretzelmaker Celebrate With Giving Away Free Pretzels

Pretzel companies around the country are giving away free pretzels today in honor of National Pretzel Day.

Yahoo! Finance reports that Pretzelmaker®, home of the world's best soft pretzel, is celebration its yearly tradition of giving away free pretzels in celebration of National Pretzel Day.  In addition, they will be asking customers to tell their favorite joke in order to receive a pretzel, and all those who don't have a favorite joke can simply say, "National Pretzel Day" to receive one.

"This is our sixth year celebrating National Pretzel Day," said Julie-Ann Reid, Pretzelmaker Brand Director for GFG Management, LLC, according to Yahoo!  "We decided to keep the fun rolling this year by encouraging our customers to 'joke for their snack' to get a free pretzel."  

Television star NeNe Leakes, of "The New Normal," "The Real Housewives of Atlana," and "Glee," will serve as the official spokesperson to support Pretzelmaker through a variety of activities, according to Yahoo!  These activities include the promotion of National Pretzel Day through a nationwide satellite media tour today.  Yahoo! writes that she is excited to that inspire fans to joke around this holiday

You can visit www.pretzelmaker.com/npd/# in order to find a Pretzelmaker® location near you.  There is a limit of one offer per guest.  You can also visit https://www.freepretzels.com/ to find other participating locations near you.

The unique knot-like shape of a pretzel originated in Europe and pretzels tend to be particularly popular in German and German-speaking countries.

You may also be surprised to learn, that the origin of pretzels may have actually been religious, according to CNN.  Children were rewarded with pretzels for learning their Bible verses by French and Italien monks in the in the Seventh century.  It has also been said that pretzels are twisted to represent someone with their arms crossed in prayer, and that the three holes in a pretzel represent the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. CNN also reports that pretzel in Latin means "little reward" and in Italian it mean "little arms."

Early pretzels were of the soft sort, however, the Pennsylvania Dutch invented the hard, crunchy kind, CNN reports.  Pennsylvania actually continues to make the majority of the pretzels in America.  The pretzel industry sells about $1 billion worth of pretzels annually.