10 reasons to celebrate 4th of July if you are not American

First of all let me wish all our American friends a happy 4th of July! Eat, drink and be merry!

Today, I went online to find out a bit more about this holiday, and I actually found out that July 4th is a day to celebrate even if you’re not from the States (damn Italians, every occasion is good to party!!)

Anyway, here are the 10 good excuses I found to have a day off even if we are in Tuscany, and not at all American.

1. We have to be sympathetic with our American friends, so we could still celebrate the 4th of July! In the end, this day is a celebration of independence and freedom, and who doesn’t like and need that? These are certainly values that we should remember and celebrate a bit more in Italy too, especially these days…
2. Being a 50% Canadian family, we could celebrate the 374th birthday of the city of Trois Rivières, founded on July 4th 1634. A way to celebrate new beginnings!
3. We could also celebrate progress in civil rights remembering the 183rd anniversary of the abolition of slavery in the State of New York (July 4, 1827).
4. We could celebrate our freedom to travel by remembering the 173rd anniversary of the first long-distance railway ever opened: the Great Junction Railway between Birmingham and Liverpool officially inaugurated on July 4th 1837. Or the 124th anniversary of the first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train that arrived in Port Moody (British Columbia) on July 4th 1886.
5. We could celebrate dreams come true and the anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (July 4th 1865) or of the NASA’s Pathfinder landing on the surface of Mars in 1997.
6. We could celebrate women’s rights: on July 4th 1903, Dorothy Levitt was the first woman to compete in a motor race.
7. We could celebrate the importance of culture and free speech by remembering the terrible massacre of Polish scientists and writers by the Nazi during the capture of the Polish city of Lwów in 1941 or the first first broadcast by Radio Free Europe in 1950.
8. We could celebrate moral integrity by remembering the anniversary of Samuel Richardson’s death (July 4th, 1761): who has ever explained better than him that “virtue is indeed rewarded” in hundreds of pages of epistolary novels?!
9. We could celebrate love, passion, nature and life, with all our vices and virtues, by remembering the controversial first publication of Walt Whitman’s book of poems Leaves of Grass in 1855.
   
10. We could celebrate spirit of community by remembering Garibaldi’s birthday: he was born on July 4th 1807. You see? I told you I would find the perfect excuse for Italians to celebrate!!

Happy 4th of July!!

Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,
All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,
Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,
Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,
A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,
Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
W. Whitman – “America”