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National Taco Day

Next celebratedTuesday, October 6, 2026

National Taco Day sits on a Tuesday, which is the night the taco already had a claim on. Go and get some while the tortillas are still warm, and do not be precious about how you eat them.

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?
YEARLY DATEFirst Tuesday in October
OBSERVED INUnited States
CATEGORYFood
SUBCATEGORYGlobal Cuisines
ORIGIN

Institutional Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY
National Taco Week Council
FIRST OBSERVED
1968
HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

The first date came from a San Antonio council.

The earliest documented National Taco Day was named by the National Taco Week Council, a body formed by the San Antonio Social Civic Organization with the Mexican Food Institute. Its announcement, entered in the Congressional Record on April 30, 1968, put the day on May 3 each year; the October date now observed has no located origin record of its own.

Read the 1968 Congressional Recordvia U.S. Government Publishing Office
INTRO

Congress has a taco holiday on file

National Taco Day moves around the calendar because a fast-food company asked it to. In September 2024 Taco Bell announced that the private registrar of national days had agreed to lift the holiday off October 4 and give it the first Tuesday of October instead, permanently.

The oddest of the day's dates is the earliest one. A San Antonio council put National Taco Day on May 3 and said why in writing: May 3 was the birthday of the congressman who carried its announcement into the federal record.

That congressman was Henry B. Gonzalez, born in San Antonio on May 3, 1916. In the remarks he filed that day he noted that colleagues who knew the corn tortilla had yet to taste one properly cooked, filled and molded into a taco. Nothing located in the record connects his day to the October one.

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ORIGINS

Taco Day history

INTRODUCTION

San Antonio staked the claim first. In 1967 Mayor W. W. McAllister proclaimed the week of April 30 to May 7 as Taco Week in the city, on the grounds that San Antonio "is known as the originator of Mexican Food in the United States."

The proclamation was not modest about the food either. The taco, it said, "now stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the hamburger and hot dog in popularity."

CHAPTER 01

Taking the week national

The push came from a body called the National Taco Week Council, formed by a San Antonio civic group together with the Mexican Food Institute. In 1968 the council set April 28 to May 4 as National Taco Week and said it would sponsor the week throughout the United States and foreign countries.

Representative Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas carried it into the federal record. On April 30, 1968 he filed the council's announcement in the Extensions of Remarks and urged colleagues to come to San Antonio and "discover the true delights of Mexican food."

CHAPTER 02

The date that took over

What became of the May date is not documented in any source located. By the autumn of 2009 an October 4 National Taco Day was circulating widely enough for Del Taco to build a giveaway around it.

The chain's press release is careful to claim nothing. It calls October 4 a day that "is designated as National Taco Day," and never says who designated it.

CHAPTER 03

Moved to a Tuesday

In September 2024 Taco Bell announced that National Day Calendar had approved a permanent change of date. National Taco Day would leave October 4 and take the first Tuesday of October instead, starting that year with Tuesday, October 1.

The stated aim was to land the holiday on a Taco Tuesday every year. It has done so since, and in 2025 the day fell on Tuesday, October 7.

TIMELINE

Timeline

San Antonio proclaims a Taco Week

Mayor W. W. McAllister set aside April 30 to May 7 as Taco Week in the city.

May 3 named National Taco Day

The National Taco Week Council fixed May 3 as the annual day and had its announcement entered in the Congressional Record.

A chain promotes the October date

Del Taco built a free-taco offer around October 4 and described the date as already designated.

The day moves to a Tuesday

Taco Bell announced approval for a permanent shift to the first Tuesday in October, starting on October 1 that year.

The new pattern holds

The moved holiday fell on Tuesday, October 7, its first full year on the new rule.

GOOD TO KNOW

Surprising facts about National Taco Day

The same word names a blasting charge

The Real Academia Española lists the maize tortilla rolled around a filling and the wad of rag, tow or sand used to tamp the charge in a blast hole as numbered senses of one word, taco. It gives the word's origin as uncertain.

Glen Bell did not invent the taco shell

Glen Bell's authorized biography says he invented it in the 1950s. A form for frying tortillas into tacos was patented in 1950 by Juvencio Maldonado of New York, on an application he filed in July 1947.

A senator put his taco eating in writing

The council's 1968 announcement reports that Senator Ralph W. Yarborough of Texas had written a letter the year before saying he would eat "lots of Tacos" during National Taco Week.

October 4 was almost never a Tuesday

Between 2000 and 2024 the old fixed date landed on a Tuesday exactly four times: 2005, 2011, 2016 and 2022. The release announcing the move cited exactly that.

The release that spread October 4 dated the taco to 3000 BC

Del Taco's 2009 announcement opened by tracing the taco "to the Aztecs around 3000 BC." The historian Jeffrey M. Pilcher puts the first references in any archive or dictionary at the end of the 1800s.

A taco is the highest form of a tortilla.
Henry B. GonzalezU.S. Representative from Texas

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Taco Day

RECORD

The founders' own words sit in a federal volume, printed whole.

The council's announcement was printed complete in the Congressional Record rather than summarized, so its exact wording is still readable. That is why the day's first date, and the reason given for choosing it, can be quoted instead of guessed at.

COMMERCE

Private parties set the date

No federal instrument names this day: a term search of the Federal Register returns nothing across the whole span its index covers. The 2024 change was requested by a restaurant company and approved by a private calendar registrar.

HERITAGE

It began as a civic project

The group that fixed the first date described itself as a nonprofit, nonpolitical civic organization promoting Latin American history and culture in San Antonio. It ran the campaign with a body called the Mexican Food Institute, which sold memberships for four dollars a year.

GOOD TO KNOW

National Taco Day Around the World

United States

the first Tuesday in October since 2024, kept mainly through restaurant offers

Mexico

a separate Día del Taco on March 31, reported to have started with a 2007 campaign built around an event at the Estadio Azteca

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Taco Day

EDITOR'S PICK

Check which Tuesday the day falls on

The date is no longer fixed to October 4, so look it up before you make plans. It shifts by up to a week from one year to the next.

SET

Set out fillings and let everyone build their own

Warm a stack of tortillas, put three or four fillings in the middle of the table, and add a row of salsas. Nobody has to agree on anything.

READ

Read the 1968 announcement for yourself

The council's pitch runs a full page in the Extensions of Remarks for April 30, 1968. It is the only place the day's original date is set out in the words of the people who chose it.

ORDER

Order a style you have never eaten

Ask for whatever the counter is proudest of rather than the thing you always get. A taqueria menu usually has three or four fillings most customers walk past.

SERVE

Serve them crisp and soft in the same round

San Antonio's 1967 proclamation called the tortilla the basic ingredient of the taco, corn or flour, cooked crisp or soft. Fry half a batch and warm the rest, and settle the question at your own table.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Taco Day?

1 / 8

Which federal publication carries the 1968 announcement of National Taco Day?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance rather than a public holiday, so offices, banks and schools stay open on it.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

12sources
8primary records
9independently dated
Primary records
U.S. Government Publishing Office1968-04-30
Congressional Record, Vol. 114, Pt. 9, Extensions of Remarks, April 30, 1968
The National Taco Week item, with the council's announcement and the 1967 San Antonio proclamation printed in full.
View source
U.S. Government Publishing Office1968
GovInfo record: Extensions of Remarks, April 30, 1968
The catalogue page for that day's Extensions of Remarks, with a link to the scanned pages.
View source
Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
GONZALEZ, Henry B. (G000272)
The official congressional biography, giving his birth in San Antonio on May 3, 1916.
View source
Federal Register
Document term search for "National Taco Day"
A zero-result search of the federal index, run beside controls that return presidential proclamations.
View source
Google Patents1950-05-02
US2506305A, Form for frying tortillas to make fried tacos
Juvencio Maldonado's granted patent, filed July 1947 and issued May 2, 1950.
View source
Real Academia Espanola
taco, Diccionario de la lengua española
The Spanish academy's entry, which calls the word's origin uncertain and lists both the food and the blasting charge.
View source
Taco Bell2024-09-17
National Day Calendar Officially Moves National Taco Day To Tuesday Thanks To Taco Bell
The company's own announcement of the permanent move to the first Tuesday in October.
View source
Del Taco, via the Internet Archive2009-10-02
Time to Celebrate National Taco Day!
The chain's October 2009 release, which treats October 4 as already designated and names nobody.
View source
Additional coverage
Smithsonian magazine2012-05-03
Where Did the Taco Come From?
Historian Jeffrey M. Pilcher on the silver-mine theory, the late-1800s references, and Glen Bell's claim.
View source
El Informador2024-03-30
Día de Taco: ¿Cuál es su origen y por qué se celebra?
A Guadalajara daily on Mexico's March 31 taco day and the 2007 campaign behind it.
View source
Infobae México2026-03-31
¿Por qué hoy 31 de marzo es el Día del Taco en México?
A second Mexican account of the March 31 date, noting that it is not official.
View source
TODAY2025
National Taco Day 2025: Score Free Tacos and Deals at Taco Bell, Moe's, Del Taco and More
Coverage confirming the moved holiday ran on Tuesday, October 7, 2025.
View source
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