National Taco Day 2016: Deals, Freebies, Promotions For Tasty Holiday

Do you love tacos? Sorry, dumb question, everyone loves tacos. Well, rejoice taco lovers — i.e. everyone — because Tuesday is National Taco Day 2016.

The National Taco Day website reports that Americans eat some 4.5 billion tacos per year. To put that in perspective, end-to-end that's about 490,000 miles of taco goodness — the moon is just 238,855 miles away — or about 775 million pounds of taco, the weight of two Empire State Buildings.

A taco's contents are limited only by one's imagination and the size of the tortilla, be it soft shell or hard, but usually feature some sort of meat, like chicken, beef or fish. There's other varieties, of course, such as the tofu taco or popular breakfast egg taco, a sure-fire way to improve any brunch. You'll see tacos topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, cilantro, dollops of sour cream, salsa, corn, cheese, or anything else that can be sprinkled atop meat.

With so many options for taco-indulgence, listed below a few of the major deals planned for National Taco Day Tuesday. To check in on some of your favorite local spots, peruse the hashtag #NationalTacoDay or check here at the holiday's website.

Margaritas Mexican Restaurant

The chain with 26 locations is offering up a two-pound, 12-inch behemoth Taco Gigante through the end of October. On National Taco Day, the purchase of a Taco Gigante comes with a free regular taco, in case two pounds of taco wasn't quite enough.

Taco Bell

The major fast food taco chain is promoting National Taco Day, telling customers to send taco day greeting cards for the occasion. They also created a jingle for the holiday. They have yet to announce any special deals.

Tres Carnes

For NYC based readers, all New York City locations will hand out free mini tacos from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday.

California Tortilla

California Tortilla is a chain with locations in Washington D.C., Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Florida. To honor National Taco Day it's running a buy one taco, get one taco free deal every Tuesday in October.

Chipotle

The major fast-casual chain didn't announce any National Taco Day deal just yet, but it is expected to launch its new chorizo tacos Tuesday, just in time for the holiday.

On The Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

The popular chain will offer $0.50 mini crispy tacos all day at participating restaurants. The company said it sold more than 104,000 tacos on last year's National Taco Day.