Have fun, be safe celebrating July 4 holiday weekend

By: Morning News | SCNow
Published: July 04, 2008

This year, the Fourth of July falls on a Friday giving lots of people a long weekend to enjoy the holiday.

Some already hit the road for the beach or the mountains.

Lots of others will be heading out today to enjoy the holiday weekend.

Others will stay closer to home, but most people will find a way to relax and “celebrate.”

They’ll have cookouts, go to the river or the lake, and they’ll shoot off fireworks, as well.

There will be parades — some more formal and others of the neighborhood variety.

Here in Florence, the RedWolves play baseball “away” today, but their traditional game along with fireworks are on Saturday.

Festivities are planned Saturday at Timrod Park, as well, and there are many other local events to celebrate the holiday.

All this has become a way to celebrate our country’s Independence Day or July Fourth to remember the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring the United State’s independence from England.

According to various Web sites and history books, there were two celebrations of the holiday the next year.

In Rhode Island, 13 guns were fired — in the morning and in the evening.

In Philadelphia, there was an official dinner for the Continental Congress, toasts, 13-gun salutes, speeches, prayers, music, parades, troop reviews and fireworks.

George Washington gave the troops a double ration of rum in 1778 to mark the holiday.

Massachusetts was the first state to recognize the holiday in 1781.

Congress gave federal workers the day off — unpaid though — in 1870.

By 1941, it became a paid holiday.

Now, of course, most “offices” are closed but plenty of people are working.

Despite all the problems we face, it’s certainly worth a moment to stop and be thankful for our “independence.”