When is the Fourth of July?

It’s one of those trick questions, right?  Like who’s buried in Grant’s tomb or what color was George Washington’s white horse?  Not around here!

This year, all of Mount Dora’s Independence Day celebrations (parade in the morning, celebration in the park in the evening capped by fireworks) are being held on July 3.  I’m assuming this is because the 4th is on a Sunday this year, and they would rather have everything on a Saturday?  To me, that’s like saying “Well, Christmas is on a Sunday this year, so let’s just have it on the 24th.”  I’m just going to come out and say it: I don’t get it.

Independence Day is a big deal to me.  One of my favorite holidays.  As a native Virginian, history is a big thing for me.  Yes, some people there are still fighting the Civil War with rebel flags hung up behind the gun racks on their pickup trucks, but some of us also grew up with a working knowledge of Colonial Williamsburg and have visited George Washington, Richard Henry Lee and Thomas Jefferson’s homes so many times we consider them close personal friends.  The American Revolution is probably my favorite period of American history, and I don’t want to tell you how many times I’ve seen 1776.   So celebrating it a day early just feels weird.

Not that I’ll be boycotting it or anything.  Mount Dora on the Fourth of July is a tradition with us.  We usually walk the dogs downtown to watch the parade; it’s a good bit of socialization for them, they get lots of random hugs from kids, and Sarah wears a party collar and gets told she’s pretty by lots of people, so that’s always good.  The parade itself is a lot of fun: very small-town, marching down Donnelly Street with floats, city council members and local businesses, looking like something out of a John Cougar Mellencamp video.   And the fireworks over Lake Dora are gorgeous and within walking distance from the house, which is one of the things I love about living here.

But I’m still left feeling a little confused.  Once we’re done celebrating the Fourth of July on the third, what do we do on the Fourth?  It’s a mystery.

Eh, who cares.  It’s all a gray area anyway.   The wording of the Declaration of Indepence was finalized and approved on the fourth, which is why we celebrate the fourth as Independence Day, but the actual vote on the resolution for American independence was on July 2, so technically TODAY is Independence Day.   John Adams’s letter to his wife, Abigail, dated July 3, 1776, says as such (from A Tradition of Celebration by the Adams Family):

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not. (The Book of Abigail and John: Selected Letters of the Adams Family, 1762-1784, Harvard University Press, 1975, 142).

I love how this song from 1776 echoes his letter so well:

So happy Independence Day, whenever you end up celebrating it!

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