Holidays
History of the 4th of July: Thomas Jefferson
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 his hand penned the immortal Declaration of Independence. As my friend Clay Jenkinson — who has been portraying Jefferson for over 20 years — says in his…
Read MoreHistory of Canada Day
HISTORY OF CANADA DAY As the U.S. will soon celebrate its Independence Day, Canadians have a celebration of their own. Canada Day (Fête du Canada) marks the anniversary of July 1, 1867, when the three independent colonies of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into a single dominion. The British North American Act, known today…
Read MoreHistory of St. John the Baptist Day: Midsummer
HISTORY OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST DAY The Feast of St. John the Baptist, or the Nativity of St John the Forerunner, sometimes called St. John the Baptist Day, is celebrated on June 24 in many places worldwide, though not much in the United States, as we’ll see below. Celebration of the Feast of the…
Read MoreScience of the Summer Solstice: Start of Summer
SCIENCE OF THE SUMMER SOLSTICE Solstice comes from the Latin word solstitium, meaning “Sun, standing still.” The Summer Solstice occurs on June 21 at 14:58 UTC, Coordinated Universal Time, Zulu Time, or roughly Greenwich Mean Time. Greenwich, England, is the prime meridian — the zero point for longitude lines. Why is UTC the abbreviation for Coordinated…
Read MoreHistory of Father’s Day: the Beginning
HISTORY OF FATHERS DAY: the Beginning [NOTE: I wrote a more extended and serious version of this article for CBS.com several years ago. It has been published on their network of sites for major cities nationwide. You can find that article here.] Origin of Father’s Day The celebration of Father’s Day goes all the…
Read MoreHistory of Juneteenth: and the Emancipation Proclamation
HISTORY OF JUNETEENTH: and the Emancipation Proclamation June Nineteenth, or Juneteenth, marks the celebration of the emancipation of African-American slaves in Texas in 1865. While the annual celebration started in Texas the following year in 1866 – and became an official Texas state holiday there in 1980 – this formerly obscure holiday is now observed…
Read MoreHistory of Flag Day
HISTORY OF FLAG DAY June 14 is the day the United States celebrates Flag Day. While it may not be as widely celebrated as other American holidays, it is one of the oldest. It was resolved by the Second Continental Congress in 1777, even before the conclusion of the American War of Independence, the Revolutionary…
Read MoreHistory of June
HISTORY OF JUNE June represents the year’s halfway point, the sixth of the twelve months of both the Gregorian calendar, which we currently use in the West, and the earlier Julian calendar, named for Julius Caesar, the namesake of July. Where do we get the name for June? What’s In A Name? Ovid, author…
Read MoreHistory of Pentecost
HISTORY OF PENTECOST The Feast of Pentecost is taken from the Greek word πεντηκόστη which means “the 50th,” referring to the fiftieth day after Passover and Easter. This would coincide with the harvest festival Shavuot the “Feast of Weeks in the Jewish calendar.” In the Christian calendar, Passover played a part in several visits Jesus…
Read MoreHistory of Memorial Day: Where did it Begin?
HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY: BOALSBURG, PA The city of Boalsburg, Pennsylvania, an American village on the National Historic Register, claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day, as do at least 24 other towns in America. I first visited this hamlet near State College, home of Penn State University, decades ago. Boalsburg’s claim goes back…
Read MoreHistory of Memorial Day: Why We Fight
HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY: WHY WE FIGHT The world is different from two decades ago as we celebrate Memorial Day. We have troops in countries that we didn’t have then, and after 9/11, we now remember why we fight. The History Channel often re-runs the HBO series Band of Brothers, the T.V. adaptation of the…
Read MoreHistory of Memorial Day: Which War?
HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY: WHICH WAR? Memorial Day was not universally recognized as a shared American Holiday until after World War I. But that’s not how it started in the United States. When did it begin? Civil War and Memorial Day Following the American Civil War, or the “War Between the States,” as it…
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