I've always been very happy to be American (although I avoid pride) and I love the country I live in immensely. I take Independence Day to be a significant holiday for the country and as such, I mean to call the day what it is: A day that we celebrate the formal separation of the 13 colonies that would become the United States of America from the Kingdom of England; not simply a date of the calendar. Holidays have names for a reason, and that is they are days where we specially recognize something. Christmas, as we all know, is a holiday where the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated (whether or not it's the day of the year it happened), which just happens to be the 25th of December. Nobody, however, would call it such. Nobody calls Thanksgiving "The Last Thursday in November". Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Easter, and countless other holidays all have meanings and they all have their own meaningful name. Each 4th of July I don't celebrate a date on a calendar, or the position of the earth in it's annual orbit about the Sun. I celebrate the founding of the place that I live, which I love dearly. The funny thing is, the only holiday which we actually do celebrate a date on the calendar is New Year's Day, and even that has it's own special name. Nobody ever refers to it as "The 1st of January", yet everybody commonly calls the most significant civic holiday we in America have, "The 4th of July" and it drives me absolutely bonkers. Please, my fellow Americans, start saying "Independence Day".
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Independence Day, Not the 4th of July
Ask any one of my personal friends and they'll tell you that at some point, I've given them shit for using the term "4th of July" to refer to Independence Day. It's one of my biggest pet peeves. Now, I know it's not a federal crime if one uses this common place vernacular to refer to the holiday. I mean it when I give my friends shit, but it's always in a playful tone. I get that it's not the biggest of deals, but it's important to me to call the day what it is.
I've always been very happy to be American (although I avoid pride) and I love the country I live in immensely. I take Independence Day to be a significant holiday for the country and as such, I mean to call the day what it is: A day that we celebrate the formal separation of the 13 colonies that would become the United States of America from the Kingdom of England; not simply a date of the calendar. Holidays have names for a reason, and that is they are days where we specially recognize something. Christmas, as we all know, is a holiday where the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated (whether or not it's the day of the year it happened), which just happens to be the 25th of December. Nobody, however, would call it such. Nobody calls Thanksgiving "The Last Thursday in November". Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Easter, and countless other holidays all have meanings and they all have their own meaningful name. Each 4th of July I don't celebrate a date on a calendar, or the position of the earth in it's annual orbit about the Sun. I celebrate the founding of the place that I live, which I love dearly. The funny thing is, the only holiday which we actually do celebrate a date on the calendar is New Year's Day, and even that has it's own special name. Nobody ever refers to it as "The 1st of January", yet everybody commonly calls the most significant civic holiday we in America have, "The 4th of July" and it drives me absolutely bonkers. Please, my fellow Americans, start saying "Independence Day".
I've always been very happy to be American (although I avoid pride) and I love the country I live in immensely. I take Independence Day to be a significant holiday for the country and as such, I mean to call the day what it is: A day that we celebrate the formal separation of the 13 colonies that would become the United States of America from the Kingdom of England; not simply a date of the calendar. Holidays have names for a reason, and that is they are days where we specially recognize something. Christmas, as we all know, is a holiday where the birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated (whether or not it's the day of the year it happened), which just happens to be the 25th of December. Nobody, however, would call it such. Nobody calls Thanksgiving "The Last Thursday in November". Christmas, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Easter, and countless other holidays all have meanings and they all have their own meaningful name. Each 4th of July I don't celebrate a date on a calendar, or the position of the earth in it's annual orbit about the Sun. I celebrate the founding of the place that I live, which I love dearly. The funny thing is, the only holiday which we actually do celebrate a date on the calendar is New Year's Day, and even that has it's own special name. Nobody ever refers to it as "The 1st of January", yet everybody commonly calls the most significant civic holiday we in America have, "The 4th of July" and it drives me absolutely bonkers. Please, my fellow Americans, start saying "Independence Day".
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