July, Independence, and related Holidays

July 4, 2003 11:45 PM

Independence Days Worldwide. Happy Independence Week, Bahamas! or What else happens in July? There's a lot of independence holidays, as there was a fair bit of colonialism to get out from under during the 19th/20th centuries. And most countries in general have important victories and events to celebrate... many of us are familiar with Bastille Day and Cinco de Mayo, for example. The dates aren't so much important as the realization of the stories and struggles that have gone on and still go on around the world, but the dates are a place to start.
posted by namespan (6 comments total)

Oh. One more list of Independence Days, and a note that while the rubicon.com resource lists July 4th as Tongan Independence day, I understand it's really June 4th, which was one thing that led me to post multiple sources.

And also, I wanted to point out that sometimes it's ok to just be in it for the parties.
posted by namespan at 11:48 PM on July 4, 2003

When I was a kid, my favorite resource for this sort of thing was Charlie Brown's Fourth Book of Questions and Answers. Best encyclopedia a kid could have. It's where I learned about that Pancake flipping holiday they've got.
posted by weston at 12:06 AM on July 5, 2003

"Since 1957, Chase's Calendar of Events has been the ultimate reference calendar: the standard day-by-day directory to special days, weeks and months as well as holidays, historical anniversaries and fairs and festivals."
The price has about tripled since I first encountered it in Junior High (but now they have a 'consumer-priced' version with one-sixth the stuff in it). At radio stations in the '70s, it was indispensable, between coming up with themes for advertising promotions, to giving brainless disc jockeys something safe to talk about every day.
posted by wendell at 12:23 AM on July 5, 2003

In 2000 many US calendars noted some new holidays without explanation which disappeared again with the 2001 calendars.

As the newly noted holidays were Australian I believe they were included solely due to Australia hosting the 2000 Olympics.

Which does sort of confirm the US's nation-centric attitude. Although I did get to learn a bit about Australia and Canberra day due to this and my curiosity.
posted by DBAPaul at 6:24 AM on July 5, 2003

Walking thru the Wal-Mart parking lot about 12:30 last night, I listened to all the fireworks in the surrounding neighborhoods and thought about how much it sounded like gunfire. I wondered if Iraq is going to have an independence day of its own.
posted by alumshubby at 8:34 AM on July 5, 2003

Hey, according to the Cinco de Mayo article, France controlled Mexico for three years. I didn't see that one on the "French Military Victory" pages.... maybe three years doesn't count?
posted by weston at 10:07 AM on July 5, 2003