How July 4th Celebrations Started

It seems a basic concept - July 4^th is the anniversary of the declaration of United States independence from England, but that is not when Independence Day celebrations started. Interestingly, despite a celebrating of being separate from England, it is based largely on English traditions.

During the sixteenth century, many issues of religious and political discontent existed. People in the British Isles started using official and unofficial anniversary dates to make a political statement of their alliances both supporting and dissenting government and religious beliefs and ideals. These came to include fasting or feasting, and every day events like birthdays and funerals came to have this political celebration overtone. This practice was carried over by the early US colonizers. In one way, this identified them as members of the British Empire, and at the same time it dissented from it. When discontent began to spread, these anniversary festivals became a peaceful means of protest that allowed them to spread their opinions and political message with parades and dinners. When lots of people showed up for the food and festivities, it gave the appearance of large groups of supporters for a political position.

Such a staged celebration took place in July 1776. After two national fasting days and talk of independence for about a year, the Declaration of Independence was printed. But this time, no prescribed celebration was ordered after the people had become used to denoting such events. So the colonists came up with anniversary celebrations on their own without any ordinance to instigate the occurrence.

While some took to acts of outright rebellion like destruction of any property that extolled the king, others used the standard practices that they used for peaceful protest within a festival setting. These included the dinners, parades, sermons and speeches, festivals and feasts as celebrations with explicit political meanings and those who were drawn to the festivities were presented as supporting the underlying political message. This time the celebration was supporting the separation from England. This also served to influence those who may have doubted the political move and give the appearance that many more people were celebrating the event when actually many showed up for food and entertainment or to see what all the fuss of a parade was about. These festivals drawing large crowds gave the appearance that many were celebrating the political occasion and that a separate nation was the wish of the majority and that such a separation was moving forward, even before it was really a solid act. Several festivals cropped up individually on various dates in July which came to be celebrated, but July 4^th came to be the one that stuck.

Once a political message of peaceful protest was not needed to unify the people to make sure the new States became a separate nation, the celebration still continues in the form we know today to celebrate the country itself. Certain aspects that were a feature in the initial political anniversary celebration took on a different tone in modern day celebrations, while fireworks and songs were a prominent feature they are now to most people the signature signs of the 4^th of July. Most food festivities are simple to prepare picnic food. These features all have a root in English tradition but now have an American twist such as foods that are believed to have started in America (such as the first hamburger, albeit without ketchup, that originated from New Haven, Connecticut) Corn on the Cob as a nod to early pilgrim Thanksgiving and food exchanges, Nathan's claims that Hot Dogs started over when a few men fought on July 4th over who was the most patriotic and decided to prove it with eating the most hot dogs. Other simple foods that are common are those of interest to a specific U.S. region or those that are often associated with non-English style picnics.