Fourth of July Traditions

As we descend upon the birthday of America, let us ponder some of the traditions of this national holiday.

Why do we shoot off fireworks? Fireworks go back centuries and were used to celebrate occasions and holidays before the War of Independence. John Adams wrote to his wife that the holiday should be celebrated with “illuminations”. It should be noted by “succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be solemnized(nice verb) with pomp and parade, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward and forever more.” For a guy who wasn’t well liked in his day, he can be praised for suggesting such a wonderful party– in George Washington issued double rations of rum in 1778– as a method of recognizing the birth of our country. Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4th, 1826 also the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Calvin Coolidge is the only chief exec born on the fourth.

July 4th was named a federal holiday in 1941 but many states recognized the day as a holiday way before that–Massachusetts in 1781 just before the victory at Yorktown. in 1870 it was made an unpaid holiday by the federal govt. Bonfires were used to celebrate the holiday, a tradition first widely done in New England with local towns competing to see who could creat the largest–the record unofficially held by Salem 40 tiers of wooden barrels stacked high. Must have been quite a sight and extraordinarily dangerous.

56 of our founding forefathers signed it but not all at the same time. Thomas McKean was the last to sign in January of 1777. Ben Franklin was the oldest to sign, Jefferson and Adams were the only presidents. On June 11th, the “Committee of Five” were appointed to put the document together which without email and project management software to share the duties among them must have been a daunting task. Adams, Jefferson, Franklin were on it. Roger Sherman of Connecticut who is the only man to sign all of the founding docs of the US — the Declaration, the Constitution, Articles of Confederation and the Continental Association and Robert Livingston who’s later claim to fame was negotiating the Louisiana Purchase. They knocked it out in less than a month. No Microsoft word or photo copiers…must have been difficult.

Before you know it, the 4th of July was being celebrated all over. Politicians began to use the day to speechify in public and we all love the “4th of July” bargains at the auto dealerships, dept stores, and appliance sales. Why not? Most of your customers have the day off–come on down and save some money!