The cheese calendar
64 markets, fairs, feasts and fasts of the year, with the cheeses each one calls for. Dates are worked out afresh every day; those marked "about" follow the moon or local calendars and can shift by a day.
November 2026
about 8 Nov 2026Diwali, paneer and chhena sweetsThe festival of lamps, when kalakand, ras malai and a festive paneer curry join the boxes of sweets that pass between homes.
about 18 Nov 2026Jagaddhatri Puja in ChandannagarChandannagar's great puja of lights, in the town where the syrup-filled jolbhora sandesh was first made.February 2027
about 7 to 9 Feb 2027Losar and the Himalayan yak cheesesThe Tibetan and Bhutanese new year, when dried churpi, butter tea and datshi dishes are part of the household feast.
9 Feb 2027Shrove Tuesday, the last cheese of CarnivalThe last day before Lent, when Naples bakes lasagne di Carnevale with ricotta and Sicily fills cannoli.
15 to 17 Feb 2027Basel Fasnacht and the cheese tartThree days of carnival from 4 a.m. on the Monday after Ash Wednesday, kept going by flour soup and cheese tart.March 2027
8 to 14 Mar 2027Maslenitsa, Butter WeekThe last week of dairy before Great Lent, when blini are filled with tvorog and syrniki are fried by the plateful.
21 to 23 Mar 2027Nauryz in the steppeThe spring new year of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, with nauryz kozhe and bowls of salty dried qurut for guests.
21 Mar to 2 Apr 2027Nowruz and nan-o-panirThe Persian new year at the spring equinox, with fresh herbs, flatbread and white cheese on every breakfast spread.
May 2027
about 1 to 3 May 2027Feria Nacional del Queso in TrujilloAround 1 May, the Plaza Mayor of Trujillo in Extremadura fills with Spanish, Portuguese and Italian cheesemakers.
about 7 to 9 May 2027Feria Nacional del Queso y el VinoTequisquiapan's spring fair of Mexican cheese and Querétaro wine, held in the town since the 1970s.
31 May 2027Cooper's Hill Cheese-RollingOn the spring bank holiday, runners chase a wheel of Double Gloucester down a near-vertical hill in Gloucestershire.August 2027
about 7 to 8 Aug 2027Foire aux Fromages de LivarotThe first weekend of August in the Pays d'Auge, a cheese fair in the home of Livarot, the cheese with five stripes.
about 17 Aug 2027Raksha Bandhan sweetsSisters tie a rakhi on their brothers' wrists and feed them a sweet, very often kalakand, ras malai or a chhena sweet.September 2027
about 5 Sept 2027Fiera del Cacio in PienzaOn the first Sunday of September, the districts of Pienza roll whole pecorino cheeses at a wooden spindle.
about 17 to 20 Sept 2027Cheese, the Slow Food festival in BraEvery other September, the Piedmont town of Bra fills with raw-milk cheesemakers from around the world.
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Diwali Paneer And Chhena: Kalli navya, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Durga Puja Sandesh: Subhrajyoti07, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Raksha Bandhan Sweets: Suyash.dwivedi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Poila Baishakh: Abidhasan00, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Jagaddhatri Puja Sandesh: শরদিন্দু ভট্টাচার্য্য, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Losar Yak Cheese: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Nauryz Qurut: Beqery, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Nowruz Nan O Panir: Katzenfee50, CC0, source
- Maslenitsa Tvorog: Лобачев Владимир, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Feria Queso Vino Tequisquiapan: Thelmadatter, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Coopers Hill Cheese Rolling: Dave Farrance, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Basel Fasnacht Kaesewaehe: Claude TRUONG-NGOC, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Livarot Cheese Fair: Marianne Casamance, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Bra Cheese Festival: Davide Papalini, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Pienza Fiera Del Cacio: https://www.flickr.com/people/sherseydc/, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Trujillo Cheese Fair: Luis Fermín TURIEL PEREDO, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Shrove Tuesday Carnival Cheese: Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Public domain, source
- Green County Cheese Days: SD Dirk, CC BY 2.0, source