Tag: Holidays

Happy Hanukkah

happy chanukah Hanukkah menorah

How Hanukkah Came to the White House by Jonathan D. Sarna in Forward.com

The first president who took official notice of Hanukkah was one of the Jewish community’s least-favorite occupants of the White House, Jimmy Carter. In 1979, he ended 100 days of self-imposed seclusion over the Iran hostage crisis by walking to Lafayette Park, lighting the new “National Menorah” erected there by Chabad-Lubavitch, and delivering brief remarks. Sensitized to the fact that Jews celebrate their own holiday in December, he carefully directed his next annual Christmas message only “to those of our fellow citizens who join us in the joyous celebration of Christmas.” Every president since has recognized Hanukkah with a special menorah-lighting ceremony, and limited his Christmas messages to those who actually observe the holiday.

Hanukkah came to the White House itself, in 1989, when President George H.W. Bush displayed a menorah there, given to him by the Synagogue Council of America. But the first president to actually light a menorah in the White House was Bill Clinton. In 1993, he invited a dozen schoolchildren to the Oval Office for a small ceremony. The event made headlines when 6-year-old Ilana Kattan’s ponytail dipped into the flame. Clinton ran his hands through her hair to snuff out the smoke. [more…]

 

Happy Thanksgiving

That means an extra long weekend for me. In Boston, the big traffic rush was on Tuesday night to avoid the traffic on Wednesday. I think most people have a half day on Wednesday or the day off. I hope you get to enjoy a long weekend before the push for year-end.

I’m going for the #OptOutside Friday instead of Black Friday. Look for me on bike, heading somewhere.

turkey thanksgiving

It would not be a holiday without some kind of government action. On Thanksgiving we get the presidential pardon of a turkey (or two): The Definitive History of the Presidential Turkey Pardon.

Happy Thanksgiving

first thanksgiving

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

 

The First Thanksgiving 1621 by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.

Evacuation Day and Compliance

evacuation-day

March 17 is more known for that other holiday where everything is green. You night not be celebrating today if it were not for the events of 1776.

In 1776, British forces had occupied Boston for years. The local militia and Continental army had been harassing the British soldiers, leaving them isolated on the small peninsula that was Boston at the time.

In May of 1775 American forces had captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and its artillery. Colonel Henry Knox, Washington’s chief of artillery, suggested to General Washington that they bring the captured artillery to Boston. Knox and his men hauled tons of artillery over the rugged Berkshires, through swamps and along crude roads, for 300 miles.

Washington first placed some of the heavy cannons in Cambridge and Roxbury. They were effective to harass the British, but were merely a diversion. The batteries opened fire on the night of March 2. The British returned fire, without significant casualties on either side. The action was repeated on March 3.

It was repeated again on March 4. But this night was the true diversion. Troops marched to the top of Dorchester Heights hauling tools and cannon placements. Throughout the night the troops built earthworks overlooking Boston and the harbor. The artillery was in place to controll access to the city.

On the morning of March 5, the British saw the fortifications. It was a key date because March 5 was the sixth anniversary of the Boston Massacre.

Washington controlled the harbor and access by land to the Boston peninsula. The British were vulnerable and had to either flee or try to take back Dorchester Heights. British General Howe decided to preserve his army for battle elsewhere rather than attempt to hold Boston. Howe informed Washington that Boston would not be burned if his troops were allowed to leave unmolested.

After several days of preparation and several days of delay caused by bad weather, the British forces departed Boston on March 17 and sailed to Halifax. Hundreds of 1,000 loyalist fled Boston with the troops, afraid of the rebel forces.

This was the first major victory of the Revolutionary War. The citizens of Boston were not willing to comply with the British mandates. A city full of British soldiers was causing trouble, even for those were not keen on the rebellion.

Evacuation Day was declared a city holiday in 1901. The state made it a holiday in Suffolk County in 1938. Perhaps the large Irish population of Boston played a role in the establishment of the holiday that coincided with St. Patrick’s Day.

As you hoist a green beer today, remember this victory.

References:

Enjoy Independence Day

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I’m focused on the “pursuit of happiness” clause and taking a few days off.

declaration of independence