A day for fresh pasta in Japan

The 7th and 8th of every month is Fresh Pasta Day 生パスタの日 in Japan. It comes from a playful bit of "goroawase", a pun on the reading of numbers: na(7)ma pa(8)sta - nama pasta, the Japanese for fresh pasta. The anniversary was established by the National Federation of Fresh Noodle Manufacturers’ Cooperative Associations, an organization representing producers of fresh noodles across Japan. 

Fresh pasta didn’t enter mainstream Japanese dining until the late 1990s–2000s, when Italian cafés and “pasta-ya” chains began promoting it as a premium, slightly luxurious option. Before that, pasta in Japan mostly meant spaghetti napolitan or tarako spaghetti made with dried noodles. Nowadays in restaurants fresh pasta is often made in-house, "自家製生パスタ". In supermarkets fresh pasta is sold for convenience and often contains domestic wheat varieties. 

July 8th is also celebrated as "Fresh Pasta Day", because there is both a 7 and a 8 in the date. Only in Japan would fresh pasta get its own pun-based holiday!