Philadelphia is the host of this year's celebration of the terrestrial mollusk.

Escargot (or snails) is primarily considered a French dish. But archeological work dedicated to the prehistoric, cave man era has discovered large quantities of snail shells, indicating they were an important component of the diet.

Today there are roughly 116 types of edible snails. In France, only two types are commonly eaten: the 'Petit-Gris', or 'Little Gray and the 'Escargot de Bourgogne', or 'Burgundy Snail '. Snails are like mushrooms in the sense that they can be collected in the wild, as long as the collector is educated about where to find and how to identify edible snails. In France there is a hunting season for edible snails, and they can only be collected during this time.

National Escargot Day 2012 will be hosted in New York City.