The Fifth of July

 

  Here we are in the midst of a lovely four day weekend; a sort of summer Thanksgiving. Many people will have taken Wednesday off to ease into the big day. The Fourth is the only holiday, along with Christmas and New Years of course, oh, and Veterans Day, that comes on the same date every year. Labor Day Monday and Thanksgiving Thursday are naturally three and four day holidays respectively.

  In 1842 Frederick Douglass asked in a speech, "What, to the slave, is your Fourth of July?" Back then it was nothing.  Now it's a day off. There's also the Juneteenth holiday which celebrates the end of slavery in 1865. Juneteenth is June 19th. It was often celebrated by former slaves on the third Saturday in June.  Since it became a Federal holiday in 2021 it's been celebrated on the 19th. I wonder if it will migrate to the nearest Monday like Martin Luther King's birthday, Washington's Birthday, and Memorial Day. We love a long weekend.

  Juneteenth was the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Day was adopted in 1983. Before that, Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1971, celebrated on the second Monday in October. A lot of people have a problem with Columbus and he's having to share his day with the indigenous peoples he and his like wiped out. Veterans Day, originally called Armistice Day, became a federal holiday in 1938, dedicated to the cause of world peace. It was changed to Veterans Day in 1954 to honor all veterans, and is celebrated on November 11. After going through another gigantic world war, world peace must have seemed impractical so the day was marked for those who take part in these tragedies.

  Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894, celebrated on the first Monday in September. Washington's birthday got on the list in 1879, celebrated on February 22. Memorial Day was first celebrated on May 30, 1868 to honor soldiers killed in the Civil War. This honor was later extended to those killed in all U.S. wars. Thanksgiving was officially linked to the fourth Thursday in November in 1941.

  In the late 1960s, the travel industry began lobbying Congress to create more three day weekends, and with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Memorial Day, Washington's Birthday, and Veterans Day were moved to Mondays in 1971. Veteran's organizations didn't like that and lobbied Congress to move Veterans Day back to November 11, which it did in 1978.

  Christmas goes way back. It will have been celebrated for two thousand and twenty-four years this December 25. There's no way anyone's messing with that date, even though we have only a guess what day Jesus was born. No one was around to celebrate the first New Years 4.543 million years ago. Our ancestors the bacteria showed up pretty quickly, but they were a quiet bunch. Their descendants the sponges and jellyfish just wanted to be left in peace. It's amazing that they and we went on to develop the champagne and fireworks we now enjoy when marking the start of a fresh slate of holidays. 

  Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Labor Day will be here before you know it.

For future reference