I remember when I was a little girl, and my parents put me and my brothers in the van one night, just as the sun was going down. We drove to a park – I believe it was in a town nearby the one we lived in at the time – where cars were packed into designated lots and people were walking around, many of them wearing or swinging tiny glowing bands through the air.
I don’t remember how old I was, only that I had to reach up to hold either of my parents’ hands as we made our way through the crowds and found a spot on the grass big enough to spread out a blanket big enough to accommodate the six of us.
What’s interesting to me is that I only vaguely remember watching the colorful pyrotechnics explode across the sky.
What sticks in my mind, other than being excited that I was allowed to stay up so late, was the crowd.
I remember following my parents as they threaded through the people. I remember watching the other kids running around with the glowing necklaces and bracelets, the dogs bounding along on their leashes with their families, and the smiles and laughter as neighbors bumped into each other and held quick, festive conversations before the fireworks show.
Watching the Fourth of July fireworks was a tradition in my family, at least when my brothers and I were young.
One year, when I was in my late teens, I decided I wouldn’t go to see the fireworks. I didn’t understand the point, and figured my time could be better spent doing something else instead.
Just before nightfall, my resolve broke, and I made a desperate drive into town just in time to see the city light up under the explosions.
What I didn’t realize at the time is that it’s not the fireworks themselves to which I’m attached. No, it’s the sense of connecting with so many people all at once.
Most holidays are celebrated within the privacy of one’s own home. Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter are all family holidays. Even Halloween, which allows celebrants to publicize their enthusiasm on the streets, is still more focused on the individual. Each child hopes his or her costume is the best, and while a number of trick-or-treaters do go door to door in search of sweets, the event is generally centered on an individual community.
But there’s something different about Independence Day. It is the only holiday that calls us out of our homes and asks us to gather together in one place at one time.
It is, perhaps, the only major holiday that unites us as a nation and not just as a family, neighborhood, town, or city.
Because on that night, every region in the country will have some sort of display to celebrate the day we became self-governed, and chances are that they all look very much the same.
That’s what I love about the Fourth of July, and it’s why I hope I can continue my family’s tradition even now that I’m on my own. It’s too easy to forget that we live in a world much larger than our own experience. This is the one day when we get a heart-thumping reminder of how we as a nation joined together to create a country in which we could take pride.
So this coming weekend, if you get a chance to enjoy fireworks somewhere, join your fellow Americans and take a moment to remember how we all are a part of this great nation.
(Katrina Styx is a staff writer for the Jordan Independent. She can be reached at kstyx@jordannews.com.)