USA Independence Day: Holiday History and Traditions

Independence Day is the main US public holiday, celebrated in honor of the Declaration of Independence (Declaration of Independence). 4 July 1776, representatives of the 13 states in the building of the Philadelphia City Assembly signed a document proclaiming the United States as an independent and independent state from the British Kingdom.

The inevitability of the gap with the metropolis became clear after the beginning of April 1775 military campaign for independence in North America (1775-1783).

On June 7, 1776, at a meeting of the Continental Congress, Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution stating that “The United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States; that they are completely exempt from allegiance to the British Crown; that all political connection between them and the British State should be completely dissolved.”

On June 11, a committee composed of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman and Robert Livingstone was elected to prepare a special declaration on this issue. The draft declaration was commissioned by the head of the committee, a prominent figure in the War of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, who worked on its text 17 days (from 11 to 28 June).

The Jefferson draft with minor editorial revisions of John Adams and Benjamin Franklin 28 June was submitted to the Continental Congress. During the discussion, changes were made to the draft, in particular, the section condemning slavery and the slave trade was removed.

On the evening of July 4, the agreed text of the “Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America” was unanimously approved, certified by the signatures of Congress President John Hancock and Secretary Charles Thomson, and read aloud to the people gathered in front of the building where the Continental Congress met.

This was the first document in history that proclaimed the principle of popular sovereignty as the basis of government, rejecting the theory of the divine origin of power that was dominant at that time. The Declaration of Independence asserted the right of the people to rebel and overthrow a despotic government, proclaimed the basic ideas of democracy - the equality of people, their “inalienable rights, among which are the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

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The Declaration became not only the “birth certificate” of the new state, but also a monument of American literature: Jefferson managed to express its principles and ideas in figurative language, in a concise and accessible form.

The signing ceremony on the parchment of the Declaration took place on 2 August 1776. The names of all 56 people who signed the document went down in US history, and extensive literature and a memorial in Washington are devoted to them.

Of the 56 people who put their signatures under the Declaration, five were captured by the British and shot as traitors. Nine people died from wounds sustained during the war of independence. Many have lost wives, children and property. Ironically, the two authors of this document, who later became US presidents, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, died on the same day on July 4 on the 1826 of the year exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration.

In 1870, the US Congress declared 4 July a public holiday, in 1941, this day became a paid day off.

The original Declaration of Independence is considered a state treasure in the United States and is stored in the National Archives in Washington in an inert gas-filled container of bullet-proof glass. In the daytime, the Declaration is put on public display in the archive hall, at night the container is lowered into a protected basement room.

According to the established tradition, on the Independence Day of the USA, actors dressed in camisoles and hats of the 18th century, loudly reading the text of the Declaration, perform in front of the archive visitors and tourists.

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The main event - the Independence Day Parade - takes place at noon in Washington. At the same time in America are folk festivals, fireworks are arranged, the Americans hang on their homes the US state flag.

The main national fireworks are traditionally held not in the administrative capital - Washington, but in New York - on the East River Embankment.

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The most popular way to celebrate is a barbecue in the open air.