{"id":1002,"date":"2013-07-03T10:25:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T16:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/?p=1002"},"modified":"2022-06-17T15:04:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T21:04:39","slug":"have-a-great-4th-of-july","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/have-a-great-4th-of-july\/","title":{"rendered":"HAVE A GREAT 4TH OF JULY!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"flag\"<\/a>\"371<\/a><\/p>\n

Variously known as the Fourth of July and Independence Day, July 4th has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941, but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution (1775-83). In June 1776, representatives of the 13 colonies then fighting in the revolutionary struggle weighed a resolution that would declare their independence from Great Britain. On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later its delegates adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson. From 1776 until the present day, July 4th has been celebrated as the birth of American independence, with typical festivities ranging from fireworks, parades and concerts to more casual family gatherings and barbecues.<\/p>\n

The Birth of American Independence<\/h2>\n

When the initial battles in the Revolutionary War<\/a> broke out in April 1775, few colonists desired complete independence from Great Britain, and those who did were considered radical. By the middle of the following year, however, many more colonists had come to favor independence, thanks to growing hostility against Britain and the spread of revolutionary sentiments such as those expressed in Thomas Paine\u2019s bestselling pamphlet \u201cCommon Sense,\u201d published in early 1776.\u00a0 On June 7, when the Continental Congress<\/a> met at the Pennsylvania<\/a> State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, the Virginia<\/a> delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies\u2019 independence. Amid heated debate, Congress postponed the vote on Lee\u2019s resolution, but appointed a five-man committee\u2013including Thomas Jefferson<\/a> of Virginia, John Adams<\/a> of Massachusetts<\/a>, Roger Sherman of Connecticut<\/a>, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York<\/a>\u2013to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain.<\/p>\n

On July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee\u2019s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (the New York delegation abstained, but later voted affirmatively). On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2 \u201cwill be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival\u201d and that the celebration should include \u201cPomp and Parade\u2026Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.\u201d On July 4th, the Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence<\/a>, which had been written largely by Jefferson. Though the vote for actual independence took place on July 2nd, from then on the 4th became the day that was celebrated as the birth of American independence.<\/p>\n

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Early Fourth of July Celebrations<\/h2>\n

In the pre-Revolutionary years, colonists had held annual celebrations of the king\u2019s birthday, which traditionally included the ringing of bells, bonfires, processions and speechmaking. By contrast, during the summer of 1776 some colonists celebrated the birth of independence by holding mock funerals for King George III, as a way of symbolizing the end of the monarchy\u2019s hold on America and the triumph of liberty. Festivities including concerts, bonfires, parades and the firing of cannons and muskets usually accompanied the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence, beginning immediately after its adoption. Philadelphia held the first annual commemoration of independence on July 4, 1777, while Congress was still occupied with the ongoing war. George Washington<\/a> issued double rations of rum to all his soldiers to mark the anniversary of independence in 1778, and in 1781, several months before the key American victory at Yorktown, Massachusetts became the first state to make July 4th an official state holiday.<\/p>\n

After the Revolutionary War, Americans continued to commemorate Independence Day every year, in celebrations that allowed the new nation\u2019s emerging political leaders to address citizens and create a feeling of unity. By the last decade of the 18th century, the two major political parties\u2013Federalists and Democratic-Republicans\u2013that had arisen began holding separate Independence Day celebrations in many large cities.<\/p>\n

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July 4th Becomes A National Holiday<\/h2>\n

The tradition of patriotic celebration became even more widespread after the War of 1812, in which the United States again faced Great Britain. In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4th a federal holiday; in 1941, the provision was expanded to grant a paid holiday to all federal employees. Over the years, the political importance of the holiday would decline, but Independence Day remained an important national holiday and a symbol of patriotism.<\/p>\n

Falling in mid-summer, the Fourth of July has since the late 19th century become a major focus of leisure activities and a common occasion for family get-togethers, often involving fireworks and outdoor barbecues. The most common symbol of the holiday is the American flag, and a common musical accompaniment is \u201cThe Star-Spangled Banner,\u201d the national anthem of the United States.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.history.com\/topics\/july-4th <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Variously known as the Fourth of July and Independence Day, July 4th has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1941, but the tradition of Independence Day celebrations goes back to the 18th century and the American Revolution (1775-83). In June 1776, representatives of the 13 colonies then fighting in the revolutionary struggle … Continue reading HAVE A GREAT 4TH OF JULY!<\/span> »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[290],"tags":[241,10,24,36,293,51,242,34,20,240,247,294,142,47,244,248,155,37,167,246,245,48,27,249,25,243],"class_list":["post-1002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-occasions","tag-4th-of-july","tag-dried-funeral-flowers","tag-employees","tag-encasement","tag-facts","tag-feathers-with-flowers","tag-flag","tag-flower-arrangement","tag-flower-preservation","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-freedom","tag-history-2","tag-home-business-opportunites","tag-honor","tag-honor-fallen-soliders","tag-independence","tag-memorabilia","tag-preservation","tag-preserving-memories","tag-red-white-and-blue","tag-serving-our-country","tag-shadowbox","tag-special","tag-stars-and-stripes","tag-suspended-in-time","tag-united-states-flag"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1002"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1678,"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1002\/revisions\/1678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.suspendedintime.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}