A question for anyone who doesn't live in the US

hmm, I guess I assumed that everyone knew about Independance Day, too, even if they don't celebrate... I never really thought about it much. There's this riddle someone told me once: " Q: Do they have the Fourth of July in England? ...A: Yes, they just don't celebrate."

kitty15 wrote:Dia de los Muertos? Doesn't that translate as day of the dead or is my spanish just really poor?

No, your Spanish is fine. Apparently they celebrate their dead ancestors or something like that and it's a pretty big deal. When my sister was taking Spanish a couple years ago, her class had a big Dia de los Muertos party and their families came. It was pretty fun.

Fabien wrote:Yeah, here in Canada we celebrate Canada Day

*snicker*

kitty15 wrote:Dia de los Muertos? Doesn't that translate as day of the dead or is my spanish just really poor?

I think it's more of a "paying homage to the past" sort of thing, like Memorial day... not particularly morbid. It's not like our plastic craptacular zombiefest Halloween (which apparently the British have borrowed as well, since I hear they're trick-or-treating now).

As far as the subject at hand, my dad is from England and my mom is from the US, and this is what I've figured out:

While England doesn't "celebrate" the 4th of July, you can see traces of it - they were selling red, white and blue donuts set out on an American flag background at ASDA (grocery store) and many of the music channels were playing videos by US bands, i.e. Top Twenty American Pop Idol countdown on VH1, et cetera. I've seen similar stuff in the states on Canada Day - the little red and white flags popping up every so often. That's globalization for you.

Lots of countries have their own national days, as other people have pointed out, especially ones who won independence from another country or empire. Britain has pretty much been a top dog since the Romans left, so the closest thing I can think of in England is St. George's day. There's not any major celebrating like on the 4th, at least in our household. They play "Jerusalem" on the radio about 40 million times (kind of a patriotic hymn, comparable to "My Country Tis of Thee" I guess) and my family usually just watches sports, and then drinks a lot of lager [beer]. (Actually, that's not much different from any other day :s)

Lynlyn wrote:I think it's more of a "paying homage to the past" sort of thing, like Memorial day... not particularly morbid. It's not like our plastic craptacular zombiefest Halloween (which apparently the British have borrowed as well, since I hear they're trick-or-treating now).

I feel obligated to point out that we have done no such thing as 'borrow' Halloween. It was originally a Celtic celebration, celebrated most widely in Scotland and Ireland, usually under the name of 'Samhain', and was very similar to the Day of the Dead. Unfortunately, it's been Americanised to become another commercial rip-off, and that version has been transferred back to Britain, meaning the original meaning of All Hallows' Eve has largely been lost.

Borrow indeed...

KazSmurf wrote:

Lynlyn wrote:I think it's more of a "paying homage to the past" sort of thing, like Memorial day... not particularly morbid. It's not like our plastic craptacular zombiefest Halloween (which apparently the British have borrowed as well, since I hear they're trick-or-treating now).

Borrow indeed...

I understand completely the history of the holiday and that, in fact, was what I was lamenting. What I was trying to convey was the point that you just made - the holiday has unfortunately been Americanized and is now full of small whiny children expecting candy, gaudy flashy lights, and is another excuse for Tesco to churn out sugary pre-decorated cakes - similarly to how July 4th is, not surprisingly, centered around food and low-grade explosives. I'm certainly aware that the United States did not invent All Hallows' Eve - but I feel that we did, unfortunately, invent the plastic-goods market hype that surrounds it. I'm sorry if I offended you, and I certainly didn't mean for the comment to come across that way.

Hey, I'm an American living in London, and I would like to add that just because the British don't celebrate the 4th of July doesn't mean they miss out on fireworks. They have Guy Fawkes Night on the 5th of November every year to celebrate that Guy Fawkes and some friends of his failed to blow up Parliament. Maybe I'm missing something about that holiday, but isn't it a bit ironic that the Brits use fireworks to celebrate the failure of an explosion?

Twould be tres interesting if they did celebrate the 4th of july, but not many people like America that much, to celebrate losing to such a 'great country'...I'm not big on America, I would love to live in a place with hardly any political problems...like Austrailia...yeah...that would be cool. Lol.

Why is everyone saying we were defeated? We LET them win! (joke).

But to reiterate because Im just passionate: We do not celebrate the 4th of July. It is a day we lost control of a loose canon and the world fell apart.

[quote]Do other countries besides the US celebrate the Fourth of July?[quote]

Do you celebrate Australia Day?

Hehe. No, we don't celebrate the 4th of July here. I only found out it existed because of the Simpsons.

Lynlyn wrote:I'm certainly aware that the United States did not invent All Hallows' Eve - but I feel that we did, unfortunately, invent the plastic-goods market hype that surrounds it. I'm sorry if I offended you, and I certainly didn't mean for the comment to come across that way.

I wasn't offended, and I'm sorry I misunderstood the comment. I see exactly what you mean, now.

mikeyr wrote:Hey, I'm an American living in London, and I would like to add that just because the British don't celebrate the 4th of July doesn't mean they miss out on fireworks. They have Guy Fawkes Night on the 5th of November every year to celebrate that Guy Fawkes and some friends of his failed to blow up Parliament. Maybe I'm missing something about that holiday, but isn't it a bit ironic that the Brits use fireworks to celebrate the failure of an explosion?

Well, the fireworks are supposed to represent the gunpowder used in the attempt to blow up parliament, I think, and the bonfire has something to do with the burning of Guy Fawkes (although I think they hanged him first), which is why a Guy Fawkes figure is placed on top. In any case, it's just a good excuse to have a party XD

After November 5th it became customary to burn Guys' and Popes to symbolise how protestant James succeeded over papists (catholics) and Guido Fawkes. Now we just burn guys because its mean to burn popes and we probably would just be arrested lol.

Hehe. I love bonfire night! Three years ago was particularly interesting when my friends burned a replica of one of our teachers rather than Guy Fawkes. I didn't get to see him go up in flames personally seen as I was eating toffee apples at a bonfire with my family but they did show me a pretty awesome video of it.

Now that, Kitty truly is the British way!

You burn guys??? Now that's a holiday lol

I'm jealous....