Happy 4th of July!
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(В этой части: 4th of July!)
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(In this part: learn about American Independence Day!)
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The 4th of July or Independence Day...what is it all about?
Independence Day actually traces back to the 1700s and the American Revolutionary War, where America gained its independence from England.
England was a very oppressive ruler and the American people had had enough, they wanted to live in control of themselves and without crippling taxes and regulations. They created the American Republic.
The vote for our independence actually happened on July 2nd, but the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4th, which is why we celebrate Independence Day on July 4th, which apparently was controversial at the time, but it caught on.
I read, according to census.gov, 316.2 million people celebrate, on average, the 4th of July now, every year, as compared to 2.5 million on the first independence day, which happened in July of 1776.
We celebrate the 4th of July by wearing red, white and blue clothing, we shoot off fireworks, we have barbecues on grills outside, sometimes in the park (we went to the park today). And they had a bunch of kids' rides and things.
I got this caricature with my husband. That's us!
And we celebrate by grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and eating...potato salad! These kind of things. And fireworks and just in general, outdoor activities.
And I read that John Adams, one of our founding fathers and our second president had written to his wife Abigail that he wanted to see the 4th of July celebrated in this way with, he had talked about illuminations in the sky, (that would be the fireworks), with parades, (which we also have), with all of these things. With "guns and bells and bonfires" and all these other things that he said and it's all what we do now so, hopefully he would be proud.
And, it's a very important day to our country, to our people because it not only celebrates gaining our independence from England, but sort of the larger principle of our freedom and remembering that people had to fight for it before and we should make sure we protect it today so we don't lose what all those people fought for back then. And, so we remember that we really are blessed to be here and to have the freedoms that we have, and that not everyone has them.