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The Great Fruitcake Toss is a [questionable] food holiday that takes place on the last Saturday of January. This year it’s on January 27th. (There are a bunch of attributions citing it as January 3rd annually. That’s incorrect.)
The tradition began in 1996 in Manitou Springs, Colorado, a tiny mountainside town just outside of Colorado Springs.
Each year several hundred people gather in Memorial Park to hurl their unwanted fruitcakes hundreds of fruitcakes into the air—for fun and for prizes.
WHY TOSS FRUITCAKES?
The Great Fruitcake Toss began as an activity in the post-holiday doldrums. The goal was to take a leftover Christmas fruitcake that one didn’t plan to eat, and send it hundreds of feet into the air.
What began as a post-holiday family festivity evolved into a tradition that “inexplicably grew into the epic event it is today,” says Pikes Peak Region Attractions.
The fruitcakes are tossed by hand, by slingshot, and even by cannon. See the video below.
Participate vie in various competitions that test strength, accuracy, and balance.
Some people get very competitive with mechanical and robotic devices, including a pneumatic canon.
In January 2007, a group Boeing engineers set the record for the highest Great Fruitcake Toss when their canon, the “Omega 8,” modeled after artillery.
The compressed air canon flung a fruitcake 1,430 feet into the air—the current distance record.
There are winners in every age group.
And there’s no food waste: The tossed “leftovers” are fed to pigs at the local SunMountain Center.
TO ATTEND THE 2024 FRUITCAKE TOSS
On January 27, 2027 the fruitcakes will fly again in Manitou Springs. If you plan to toss, tickets are $1 per game.
If you don’t bring your own fruitcake, you can rent one for $5, which includes 4 game tickets.
You can also bring canned goods to donate to St. Andrew’s Food Pantry and receive 1 ticket for each canned good.
WHY SHOULD YOU VISIT MANITOU SPRINGS?
If you’d like to visit anytime—Manitou Springs is known for its mineral springs. You can taste the water at eight different springs; each is different!
There are and mountain landscapes, dominated by the soaring Pikes Peak, the highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains at 14,115 feet.
For fans of archaeology, the Manitou Cliff Dwellings are a group of reassembled ancient Native American cliff structures.
For hikers there’s the Manitou Incline Trail.
For the less athletically inclined, Manitou Avenue is home to eateries, art galleries, specialty boutiques, vintage architecture, and nightlife.
> December is National Fruitcake Month and December 27th is National Fruitcake Day.
> Fruitcake recipes.
> The history of fruitcake.
> The history of cake.
> The different types of cakes: a photo glossary.
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