From the category archives:

Secular

History of Ben Franklin

by Bill Petro on July 2, 2010 · 1 comment

in History, Holidays, Secular, US

HISTORY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
We know this polymath as a writer, publisher, printer, merchant, scientist, moral philosopher, international diplomat, and inventor. Musically he invented the glass harmonica, but he also invented the Franklin stove, and started the first lending library and fire brigade in Philadelphia.
He did experiments in electricity and developed the lightning rod.
As one of [...]

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HISTORY OF THE 4th OF JULY: THOMAS JEFFERSON
Perhaps no one person is more associated with the 4th of July in American History than Thomas Jefferson, probably because it was his hand that penned the immortal Declaration of Independence.
As my friend Clay Jenkinson — who has been portraying Jefferson for over 20 years — says in [...]

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HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCE DAY
Independence Day, or the Fourth of July celebrates the adoption by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, of the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the severance of the allegiance of the American colonies to Great Britain. It is the greatest secular holiday of the United States, observed in all the states, territories [...]

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HISTORY OF JULY
The month of July was renamed for Julius Caesar, who was born in that month. Prior to that, it was called Quintilis in Latin meaning the fifth month in the ancient Roman calendar. This was before January became the first month of the calendar year about the year 450 BC. We currently use [...]

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HISTORY OF FATHERS DAY
The celebration of Father’s Day goes back all the way to the beginning, actually to the Garden of Eden when Abel gave his father Adam a razor while his brother Cain gave his father a snake-skin tie. This was the beginning of Cain’s downward slide.
Scholars have debated for ages why Mother’s [...]

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Memorial Day: Why We Fight

by Bill Petro on May 28, 2010 · 0 comments

in History, Holidays, Secular

MEMORIAL DAY: WHY WE FIGHT
The world is different than it was even a decade ago as we celebrate Memorial Day. We now are fighting a war, and we now remember why we fight. The History Channel re-runs the HBO series “Band of Brothers,” the adaptation of the Stephen Ambrose book about a company of men [...]

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History of Memorial Day

by Bill Petro on May 27, 2010 · 0 comments

in History, Holidays, Secular, US

HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY
The city of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, an American village on the National Historic Register, claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, as do some 24 other towns in America. But Boalsburg’s claim goes back to a practice at the end of the Civil War. It does have a local museum, and a [...]

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