Secular
History of Flag Day
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF FLAG DAY Part of the series on America 250, the US Semiquincentennial une 14 is Flag Day in the United States. While it is not a federal holiday and 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…
Read MoreHistory of Memorial Day: Where did it Begin?
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY 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
Reading Time: 3 minutesHISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY: WHY WE FIGHT As we celebrate Memorial Day, the world is different from what it was two and a half decades ago. 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 reruns the HBO series Band of…
Read MoreHistory of Memorial Day: Which War?
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY 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…
Read MoreHistory of Mother’s Day: Ancient and Modern
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF MOTHER’S DAY he person who initially was most active in opposing the celebration of Mother’s Day is the very person who started this holiday in the U.S. How did that happen?
Read MoreHistory of VE-Day: End of WWII in Europe 81 Years Ago
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF VE-DAY ighty-one years ago today, World War II ended in Europe with the Allies accepting the unconditional surrender from Germany on VE-Day. Or did it? May 7, 1945, VE-Day Adolf Hitler had committed suicide in his Berlin bunker a week earlier on April 30, 1945, as I describe in my article on…
Read MoreHistory of Cinco de Mayo
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF CINCO DE MAYO Cinco de Mayo is frequently regarded as the Mexican equivalent of the United States’ 4th of July. This is incorrect: it is the equivalent of the “5th of May” in Spanish. Another misconception is that this has something to do with Mayonnaise. That, too, is a bum spread, as the…
Read MoreHistory of May Day
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF MAY DAY ay Day is many things to many people. Etymologically, it is a homophone (same-sounding word) of the international call for help. It is a corruption of the French imperative “M’aidez,” meaning “Help me!” It is a holiday claimed by many.
Read MoreHistory of Earth Day
Reading Time: 3 minutes HISTORY OF EARTH DAY pril 22 is called Earth Day because it commemorates and celebrates the anniversary of our discovery of planet Earth. By all accounts, there is general agreement that Earth is far superior to the planet from which we came, as we shall recount below. Meanwhile, several companies on Earth celebrate it as…
Read MoreHistory of the Founding of Rome: the Short Version
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF THE FOUNDING OF ROME ome was founded on April 21, 753 B.C., according to the Roman antiquarian Titus Pomponius Atticus. The City’s origins are shrouded in legends and myths. One founding myth is about Aeneas, a Trojan War hero, and his descendants, who are believed to have played a role in the City’s…
Read MoreHistory of Easter: Why Bunnies and Eggs?
Reading Time: 4 minutesHISTORY OF EASTER: WHY BUNNIES AND EGGS? Podcast version he most joyous of Christian festivals and one of the first celebrated by Christians across the Roman Empire commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is set on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox. Why is Easter celebrated then,…
Read MoreHistory of April Fools’ Day
Reading Time: 2 minutesHISTORY OF APRIL FOOLS’ DAY Podcast version pril Fools’ Day, or All Fools’ Day, is the name given to the custom of playing practical jokes on friends on that day or sending them on fools’ errands. The origin of this custom has been much disputed; it is in some way a relic of those…
Read More