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The E.Newspaper
By Dr. Howdy, Ph.D.
A.P.E., N.U.T.
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Friday
CyberHistory
Independence Day or Fourth of July is the annual celebration
of the United States' "birthday," the date of the passage of
the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress
on July 4, 1776. The first celebrations included bell ringing,
bonfires, processions, and speeches. In some towns, these
celebrations also had a mock funeral for the king, symbol-
izing the end of America's rule by the British monarchy.
It was not until 1941, however, that Congress officially
established the Fourth of July as a legal holiday.
The date could easily have been July 2, the day on which the
Continental Congress approved a resolution for independence,
or August 2, the day on which the members of Congress actually
signed the document. But it was on July 4 that the final text
of the Declaration, which had been drafted by Thomas Jefferson,
was ratified. By 1788, the Fourth of July also commemorated
the U.S. Constitution as well, which had recently been
approved by ten states.
Feasting has always been part of Fourth of July celebrations.
In the beginning there were banquets, but this has evolved
into outdoor barbecues and picnics. Barbecue was originally
a word for a wooden framework for sleeping or for drying or
storing meat or fish. The word derives from Arawak or
Haitian or Taina barbacoa and became Spanish barbacoa,
"wooden frame on posts" or "framework for meat over fire."
Barbeque is the variant spelling. In English, the word's
first meanings were the framework and the animal roasted on
it; the usage of "social entertainment" is not recorded until
1733. Picnic is from French pique-nique, but that word's
origin is unknown. Picnics started out as social occasions
(the word first recorded in English in 1748) to which each
participant brought comestibles.
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