It wouldn’t be July 4, American Independent Day 246 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, if we didn’t have fireworks.
They are being held across the land with several communities in the Hudson Valley launching them into the nighttime skies to the delight of the crowds that turn out.
But who shoot off fire works to celebrate American independence from England?
It dates back to the birth of the country. History offers the following account:
On July 2, delegates from 12 colonies voted in favor of independence (New York would follow suit on July 9) and the motion carried. On July 3, even as Congress revised a draft of the declaration composed by Thomas Jefferson, an excited John Adams took up his pen to write to his wife, Abigail.
“The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America,” Adams wrote. “I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival…It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”
So, at a time when America celebrates with wireworks, picnics, barbeques and swimming, we should remember our forefathers and their rebellion against England and the first organized celebration of Independence Day held on July 4, 1777 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
