Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts
Showing posts with label United States. Show all posts

July 4 - Independence Day in the U.S.

   Posted on July 4, 2022     


This is an update of my post published on July 4, 2011:




The Fourth of July is the day that the American Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, in 1776. The Declaration was written by a “Committee of Five,” which included Robert Livingston, Roger Sherman, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson. Why do most people only credit Jefferson? He was in fact “the principle author.” The other four members of the committee asked him to write the first draft, and during the two weeks that he wrote the document, they suggested changes.


Later, Congress made a few major changes when they eliminated one passage that criticized the British people and another passage that was a scathing denunciation of the slave trade. 

The Declaration famously includes the words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." I recently went to Seneca Falls National Historical Park and viewed the Seneca Falls Declaration, dated 1848: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.”


I also saw the construction of the Martin Luther King, Jr., memorial in Washington, D.C.; King said as part of his famous “I Have a Dream” speech (1963), “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.'”

People in the U.S. often celebrate the Fourth with fireworks, parades, and barbecues.

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June 20 - Bald Eagle = U.S.!

  Posted on June 20, 2022     


This is an update of my post published on June 20, 2011:



Benjamin Franklin wanted the U.S. symbol to be a wild turkey who, he said, was intelligent and brave yet prudent (careful). Franklin thought the bald eagle had a “bad” character, since it was known to steal fish from people.


What do you think of Franklin's idea?


Basically, a bald eagle will eat just about everything and is opportunistic—in other words, it's a perfect symbol for the U.S.!

Enough Congressmen agreed that the bald eagle was chosen as the national bird and symbol on this day in 1782.
The bald eagle appears on the U.S. seal and on some
U.S. currency.




Learn about bald eagles at National Geographic.


Defenders of Wildlife has some ideas of how to help protect bald eagles.



Check out this bald eagle coloring page and jigsaw puzzle. 

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May 8 - Mother's Day in the U.S.A

(Second Sunday of May)  

Posted on May 8, 2022

This is an update of my post published on May 8, 2011:




Different countries honor moms and grandmas on different days. Some countries celebrate on a specific date each year. For example, Thailand's Mother's Day is on the birthday of the queen (Aug. 12), and Mexico's Dia de la Madre is always on May 10. Other countries celebrate on certain Sundays (rather than certain dates). Romania's is the first Sunday in May, for example, and several countries celebrate today—the second Sunday in May. Some of the nations celebrating today are Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Germany, and the United States.

There were efforts to create a day to honor mothers in the 1800s, but the holiday didn't catch on until Anna Jarvis, a woman who lived in West Virginia, enlisted the help of a wealthy Philadelphia merchant.


She promoted the holiday tirelessly from 1908 until 1914, when President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914.

Ah! The sweet, sweet smell of success. Can't you just see how satisfied Jarvis must've been because she managed to establish a new holiday?

Wrong!

Apparently, less than a decade after the birth of Mother's Day U.S.A., the celebration had become a “Hallmark Holiday.” In other words, it had become thoroughly commercialized. Floral companies, jewelers, and greeting card manufacturers, among other commercial interests, started promoting the day heavily, and we now have industries that rely on Mother's Day gift-giving and restaurants that look forward to the holiday as their biggest day of the year.



And Jarvis was not the least bit pleased by this commercialization. She became an opponent of what the holiday had become, and she spent all of her inheritance and the rest of her life fighting against this commercialization—and she was even arrested in 1948 for protesting it! She regretted ever starting the holiday!


In any given family, a holiday can be not at all commercial;
even if most families spend money on traditional Mother's
Day gifts and meals, others may give moms and grandmas
homemade cards and gifts or take the opportunity to enjoy
each other in low-cost or freebie ways, like going to a park!



Hmmm....

Jarvis certainly had the right to express her feelings about the commercialization of Mother's Day. But no more than Sally next door, Joe down the street, or you or me.

She may have thought of the holiday as “her baby,” and she might have thought that she had more rights than others to say how it would be celebrated—but, just like being a mother, creating a bit of culture does not ensure that you can control how that cultural item will be seen, used, or practiced. Giving birth to a child and even raising that child, you cannot (and SHOULD NOT!) completely control what the child is or does or becomes. If you establish a holiday, you cannot and probably should not control how others celebrate it and how it changes and evolves.

Do you agree?


Hugs and kisses are free to give!




Also on this date:









(Varies every year)







Plan ahead:


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