One common beginning of the season is the Summer Solstice. The Summer Solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year. It’s when the tilt of the Earth axis, North or South, is most inclined towards the sun. But this should be considered the middle of the season, but not the beginning.

Then again if this was the mid-point of the summer the end of summer, beginning of autumn, would occur around August 1st. I doubt that you could convince anyone who is living through the hot, humid days of August that it’s not summer.

If looking at the solstice as the mid point of summer, then when would be the beginning of summer? That would be around the first of May. A time when many are beginning to turn towards summer activities, but also one that still has many cool, and depending on location, down right cold nights.

Which brings us to the middle/end of May. Memorial Day weekend is considered by many the beginning of summer. Then again so is the last day of school. Most American colleges ends their Spring semester, one that begins in Winter, in May. Grade schools are working towards their end, that comes in late May/Early June.

The calendar, at least all of those I use, calls the Summer Solstice as the first day of summer. And in 2010 that day comes on June 21st. So here’s a wish for everyone to have a very nice first day of Summer.

The holiday had it starts in Galveston and for many years it was celebrated only in Galveston and then only in Texas.

The state of Texas was the first to make Juneteenth an official holiday. This was in 1980. Several states have issued proclamations recognizing the holiday and the day is acknowledged in most states with local or statewide celebrations.

States that mark the date as a state holiday or one of state observance include Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Delaware, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, California, Wyoming, Illinois, Missouri, Connecticut, Louisiana, New Jersey, New York, Colorado, Arkansas, Oregon, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, Virginia, Washington State, Tennessee, Massachusetts, North Carolina, West Virginia, South Carolina, Vermont and the District of Columbia.

Juneteenth celebrations are generally held as part of a large feast in a park of other outdoor space. Sort of like a large Thanksgiving picnic.

Juneteenth has become a day for African Americans to celebrate their freedom, culture, and achievements and a day for all Americans to celebrate African American history and rejoice in their freedom.

How much do you actually know about what happened on and around July 4, 1776? We all know that July 4th is the birthday of the United States, but is it really.Events that lead up to the birth of the United States started with a Resolution by Richard Henry Lee, a representative to the Second Colonial Congress from Virginia.

The Virginia House of Burgesses on May 15, 1776 resolved that “the delegates appointed to represent this colony in General Congress be instructed to propose to that respectable body to declare the united Colonies free and independent states.”

Lee presented on June 6, 1776, a resolution to congress that read;

Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved.

That it is expedient forthwith to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances.

That a plan of confederation be prepared and transmitted to the respective Colonies for their consideration and approbation.

Debate began on the resolution, but it was decided to wait for three week so that the delegates could send the resolution to their home colonies and receive direction on voting. But it also appeared to those present that the resolution would pass and that there needed to be a suitable declaration for the resolution.

On June 11, 1776, a committee consisting of John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, Robert R. Livingston of New York, and Roger Sherman of Connecticut was formed. They were known as the Committee of Five.

The committee delegated that Jefferson would write the draft. Jefferson and the committee worked on it from June 12 until June 27. Franklin and Adams made several minor corrections and the entire committee made additional changes and additions, a total of forty-seven alterations including the insertion of three complete paragraphs from Jefferson’s original draft. Jefferson then produced another copy incorporating these changes and the committee presented this copy to the Continental Congress on Friday June 28, 1776.

On Monday July 1st, congress started debate on the Lee Resolution. On July 2, 1776 a final vote was taken. It was passed. South Carolina still wasn’t in favor of independence, but Edward Rutledge, who opposed independence and had many motions to delay the vote, convinced the delegation that for the sake of unanimity, they should vote in favor. The New York delegation abstained, since they did not have instructions from their home government.

In a letter that John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3 he said;

The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore.

Finally at a little after 11 o’clock on Thursday morning July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was approved. This was after many hours of debate during the two days leading to the vote. There were thirty-nine revisions to the committee’s draft, including the deletion of language that denounced King George III for promoting the slave trade. John Hancock, as President of Congress, and Charles Thompson, Secretary of Congress signed the document. Again the New York delegation abstained from the vote, but did approve the Declaration five days later.

It wasn’t until July 19th that congress ordered that the Declaration to be officially inscribed and signed by its members. Congressional delegates began to sign the officially inscribed copy on August 2. It was even signed by some members who had not voted for its adoption.

So to everyone have a joyous 2nd of July.

© 2006-2007 Steven G. Atkinson – All Rights Reserved

The Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU) of the United States and Canada had set the date of May 1, 1886, as the date by which the eight-hour work day would become the standard work day. In the Chicago area of Haymarket Square on May 4, a riot broke out between strikers against employers who did not grant the 8 hour work day. The strikers lost.

May Day is also a holiday that was celebrated in pagan Europe. It was a festival day to celebrate the spring planting. For the Druids it was the second most important day in the year when they celebrated the festival of Beltane.

From this May Day celebration comes the May Pole and the May Pole Dance. In the Middle Ages the villages would bring a pole to the center of the village from the adjoining forest. At times neighboring villages would even have contest to see who had the tallest pole.

In the bigger towns, such as London, the poles would become a permanent structure. This custom came to America with the English colonist. One such structure in the center of New York was renamed the Liberty Pole just prior to the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

At Washington College, a small Liberal Arts College located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, the first of May has become a day when the students celebrate the coming of the end of the semester and the beginning of summer with an unique liberating May Day tradition.

According to snopes.com it started to be used by a group of students at San Rafael High School in California as the time, 4:20 in the afternoon, that they would get together to smoke some weed. This was way back in the early 1970s. 1971.

Also on snopes it is said not to have any relationship to police codes for marijuana use in progress.

The California Bill that legalized the use of medical marijuana is Senate Bill 420, but it was signed in 2004, long after the term was in use. Although I suppose some may have started using the bill number without realizing that the term was already being used by others.

Of course 4-20 is also April 20th, with April being the fourth month. And with this some groups have begun using this date as a counterculture holiday. One where people gather to celebrate and consume marijuana.

April 20th is also the birthday of one of the most despised man in History. Adolf Hitler was on on April 20, 1889.

This day is observed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and the State of Maine, which until it became an independent State and admitted into the United States on March 15, 1820 was part of Massachusetts as Patriots’ Day.

Since 1969 Patriots’ Day has been observed on the third Monday in April.

The day is commemorated each year with dramatic battle re-enactments, parades and ceremonies throughout Massachusetts. There is an re-enactment of the battle on Lexington Green that begins at dawn. Many of the spectators arrive hours before dawn essentially spending the night.

On Patriots’ Day the Boston marathon has been run. First on April 19th whenever that day may have fell and now on the 3rd Monday in April. Also since 1959 the Boston Red Sox has been schedule is such that they have a home game on each Patriots’ Day with many of these games beginning at 11 AM which usually results in the game ending just as the marathon is heading through Kenmore Square.

It’s not too hard to be confused, since September 11th has been proclaimed Patriot Day. A day designated in memory of the nearly three thousand who died as a result of the attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.