Renaming or Misappropriating Holidays

Renaming or Misconstruing Holidays, One of My Pet Peeves. 

We have all heard the joke: Does Canada have a Fourth of July? The answers one gets when asking that question can vary. Some will say that they don’t, but of course they do. The Fourth of July is merely a date on a calendar. How we celebrate it—that is what makes it special. 

The holiday commonly known as the “Fourth of July” is rightly named Independence Day. The day the colonies declared their independence from England. The beginning of our Great Nation. To me it kind of loses a lot of its meaning when it is just named after a day on the calendar. 

There are a few other holidays that get nicknamed and it bothers me because it takes away from the reason we celebrate the day. Think about these:

Thanksgiving—Turkey day

Christmas—X-mas

Washington’s Birthday, which has been renamed “Presidents Day;” I actually thought that they combined the celebration of Lincoln’s birthday and Washington’s into one holiday, but apparently we don’t even celebrate Lincoln anymore. 

I personally feel that Independence Day should be called that. Not just the Fourth of July. I believe that Thanksgiving Day is that: a day for giving thanks, not a day for the turkeys. And I am just going to let Christmas speak for itself. 

Now to the confusion around the military holidays. Each one has its own specific group of the military to celebrate and they all should be celebrated as such. 

Armed Forces Day—the third weekend in May celebrates those who are serving in all branches of the U.S. military. 

Memorial Day—Honors those who lost their lives while serving in the U.S. military. 

Veterans Day—Honors all of those who have served in the U.S. military.

I think it is awesome that people use Memorial Day to remember all of their deceased loved ones, it is a wonderful time to remember them and care for their graves, but that is not what the holiday is for. It is also not the beginning of the summer holidays. It is much more than a day for a cookout of the first camping trip of the season. 

Armed Forces Day tends to get overlooked completely it honors those who are currently serving in the U.S. military, those who are giving of themselves right now. 

And Veterans Day is the day to say thank you to those who have served and are now living in our communities and working among us. 

I would like to encourage everyone to call holidays by their real names and celebrate them the way they were meant to be celebrated. Independence Day is here, enjoy the fireworks, go to a rodeo, have a great cookout, and remember that although it is celebrated on the fourth day of July, it is much more than that.