This food holiday celebrates a thick, spicy soup that originated in the Continental Army of George Washington during the Revolutionary War. Created on December 29, 1777, at Valley Forge during an exceptionally harsh winter, the original soup was made of scraps of tripe, bits of meat, other leftovers and heavily spiced with peppercorn. It was reportedly well received by the troops, fortifying them and lifting their spirits, becoming noted as “the soup that won the war.”