Short news about Italy, with an explanatory video on all 20 Italian Regions Stereotypes, from the book Italy in brief by Carl William Brown, a collection of quotes, news and thoughts about Italy 

The name Italy comes from the word Italia, meaning “calf land,” perhaps because the bull was a symbol of the Southern Italian tribes.
Historical News

The capital of Italy is Rome (also known as the Eternal City) and is almost 3,000 years old. It has been the capital since 1871 and is home to the Dome of St. Peter’s, the Sistine Chapel, the Coliseum, and the famous Trevi Fountain.
Historical News

By the year 2000 B.C., Italic tribes (Oscans, Umbrians, Latins) had established themselves in Italy. They were followed by the Etruscans in 800 B.C. and the Greeks, who established colonies known as Magna Graeca in southern Italy (present-day Apulia). Rome was founded in 753 B.C., and soon thereafter the Romans began conquering the peninsula.
Historical News

At its height in A.D. 117, the Roman Empire stretched from Portugal in the West to Syria in the east, and from Britain in the North to the North African deserts across the Mediterranean. It covered 2.3 million miles (two-thirds the size of the U.S.) and had a population of 120 million people. During the Middle Ages, Rome had perhaps no more than 13,000 residents.
Historical News

When McDonald’s opened in 1986 in Rome, food purists outside the restaurant gave away free spaghetti to remind people of their culinary heritage.
Italians created parmesan, provolone, mozzarella, and many other cheeses. Parmesan cheese originated in the area around
Historical News

Vatican City is the only nation in the world that can lock its own gates at night. It has its own phone company, radio, T.V. stations, money, and stamps. It even has its own army, the historic Swiss Guard.
Historical News

Parma, Italy. Italians also created many other cheeses, including gorgonzola, mozzarella, provolone, and ricotta. No one knows when the pizza was invented, but the people of Naples made it popular.
Historical News

The European Union law states that we have the free movement of companies, they have freedom of establishment. This is in fact the entire point of the whole Single Market program. One company, based anywhere inside the EU, can then sell to all 27 other countries in the EU without needing to have a permanent establishment in each of those 27. And believe me the EU isn’t going to allow someone to over turn that very basic foundation of the entire project. It’s just not going to happen. So I am perfectly free to buy any goods that are legally sold throughout Europe, provided that they can be delivered, even though they are not legal in Italy, even because in Italy only stupidity is legal.
Carl William Brown

Italian is a Romance language descended from Vulgar Latin, just like Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian, the dialect spoken by the people living during the last years of the Roman Empire. Before the Romans came, people spoke their own languages, and the mixture of these original tongues with Latin produced many of the languages and dialects that are still in use today. Italian has more Latin words than any other Romance languages, and its grammatical system remains similar to Latin. Latin is still the official language of the Vatican City in Rome. In the 1930s and 40s, Italian fascist Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) tried to eliminate foreign words from Italian. In soccer, “goal” became “meta” and Donald Duck became “Paperino.” Mickey Mouse became “Topolino” and Goofy became “Pippo.” While the ban was not permanent, the Italian names remain common.
Historical News

The world’s first operas were composed in Italy at the end of the sixteenth century. Opera reached the height of popularity in the nineteenth century, when the works of Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868), Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924), and Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901) became hugely popular. The late
tenor Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) is a national celebrity, and

Claudio Monteverdi (c. 1567-1643) is regarded as the father of the modern opera.
Historical News

Venice, Italy, is one of the world’s most beautiful and unusual cities. It was founded over 1,400 years ago on a collection of muddy islands in a wide and shallow lagoon. It has been sinking into the mud for centuries and is plagued by floods.
Italy was one of the founders of the EU and is a member of the Group of Eight (G8), a forum for eight of the world’s most powerful nations.
Historical News

In Italy there are about 60 million people and we know how high is the percentage of morons on national soil. However, in China there are about 1.4 billion people and in India almost 1.3 billion. Therefore I wonder then, if more or less all the world is a small village, with how many morons should we have to come to terms on the territory of this stupid planet. It’s the same the world over, or the world is the same wherever you go!
Carl William Brown

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) was an Italian-born scientist. When he argued that the Earth revolved around the Sun, the Catholic Church imprisoned Galileo in his own house. The Church issued a formal apology in 1992.
Historical News

A part of northern Italy called Val Camonica contains about 350,000 petroglyphs that were created nearly 10,000 years ago. Brescia is a famous town at 75 km from there, it is very popular for Beretta arms industry, the oldest in the world, the Garda Lake and also because Carl William Brown was born there.
Historical News

Before the Romans came, people spoke their own languages, and the mixture of these original tongues with Latin produced many of the languages and dialects that are still in use today. If you know one of the Romance languages, you can often understand bits of another. Just as members of the same family can look similar but have totally different characters. You find the same contradictions in the dialects (regional or local language differences) in Italy and in other countries. If you visit Italy, you’ll hear various accents and dialects as you travel the country. Despite the number of dialects, you may be surprised to discover that everybody understands your Italian and you understand theirs. (Italians don’t normally speak in their dialect with foreigners.)
Linguistic News

About 70% of our English words come from Latin. This alone make Latin the most important language to influence English. For example, the word, promise, comes from “pro-mitto,” meaning to send before. Here are some more examples: word = verbum; canine = canis; college =collegium. I think you get the picture. Also Latin has influenced our grammar. For example, the distinction between “I” and “me” is based on cases. I equals nominative case in Latin and me equals dative, ablative and accusative cases. Even little things like the improper use of split infinitives come from Latin, since in Latin infinitives cannot be split. For example, to love is amare (one word) in Latin. So, in short, Latin continues to play a huge role.
Linguistic News

Italian is the official language of Italy and it is spoken by about 70 million people, primarily in this country. It’s the official language of San Marino as well, and one of the official languages of Switzerland, spoken mainly in Ticino and Grigioni cantons.
Linguistic News

The Italian Flag or il Tricolore is a green, white and red tricolor flag with equal panels representing the territories of the Republic of Italy. Adopted as the national flag on 1 January 1948, official colour designation under the Pantone Textile policy was established in 2003, then ratified into law in 2006.
Historical News

When I was growing up, my parents told me, “Finish your dinner. People in China and India are starving.” I tell my daughters, “Finish your homework. People in India and China are starving for your job.”
Thomas Friedman

Who goes to Rome a beast returns a beast.
Italian Proverb

Italy hasn’t had a government since Mussolini.
Richard Nixon

How did Italy manage to end up with no Caribbean islands at all? Christopher Columbus took the trouble to discover the

Caribbean personally before the end of the fifteenth century. Try to get a decent plate of spaghetti there now.
Calvin Trillin

Italy, and the spring and first love all together should suffice to make the gloomiest person happy.
Bertrand Russell

In Italy, for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
Orson Welles

If Spain goes under, Italy will come under even more scrutiny.
Mario Monti

In the Church of San Giovanni (One of the finest Renaissance churches in Italy) you can see Tintoretto’s masterpiece, “Madonna with Four Saints”. In the Church of San Giacomo you can see Botticelli’s masterpiece, “Two Saints with the Madonna”. In the Church of San Bartolomeo do not miss Tiepolo’s huge canvas, “Madonna with Twenty Three Saints”. In the chapel of San Marco, the focus of attention is Perugino’s small painting, “Madonna with just One Saint”.
George Mikes

Italy is a geographical expression.
Prince Metternich

Certainly, in Italy, nobody takes light for granted.
Barbara Steele

A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
Samuel Johnson

Every country gets the circus it deserves. Spain gets bullfights. Italy the Church. America Hollywood.
Erica Jong

Internet penetration in Italy is quite low and the Berlusconi media machine controls most of what people see.
Joichi Ito

I would like to thank my parents in Vergaio, a little village in Italy. They gave me the biggest gift: poverty.
Roberto Benigni

Gli italiani sono irrimediabilmente fatti per la dittatura.
Ennio Flaiano

The ideological mix-up is a natural, exasperating and, at the same time, endearing feature in this country of fierce individualists. There are seventy-five political parties in Italy – although not all are represented in parliament. Most of these parties are very small but even the smallest can boast of a sharp and unbridgeable ideological split. There is a party which has only one single member. He is schizophrenic.
George Mikes

In Italy there are about 60 million people and we know how high is the percentage of morons on national soil. However, in China there are about 1.4 billion people and in India almost 1.3 billion. Therefore I wonder then, if more or less all the world is a small village, with how many morons should we have to come to terms on the territory of this stupid planet.
Carl William Brown

You have to remember that Italy is second to none, in fact, if Germany has more than 3,500 brothels, Italy has the Vatican!
Carl William Brown

Appeal to all scholars of stupidity in the world. Come to Italy, this country has the highest rate of morons of the universe, especially among political, bureaucratic, judicial, religious, intellectual, artistic, and mass media members, so it is the best place to develop your own field research.
Carl William Brown

To be a true philosopher you must study stupidity a lot, that’s why, as Doctor Samuel Johnson used to say, a man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.
Carl William Brown

Italy is one of the world leading country of bureaucracy and stupidity.
Carl William Brown

The ideological mix-up is a natural, exasperating and, at the same time, endearing feature in this country of fierce individualists. There are seventy-five political parties in Italy – although not all are represented in parliament. Most of these parties are very small but even the smallest can boast of a sharp and unbridgeable ideological split. There is a party which has only one single member. He is schizophrenic.
George Mikes

Since Italy is the land of bureaucratic and political nonsense, it tries to make up for the lost chances through a complex system of confused laws and logical stupidity.
Carl William Brown

The increased presence of Muslims in Italy and in Europe is directly proportional to our loss of freedom.
Oriana Fallaci

Italy is doomed to disappear, it is too stupid to survive!
Carl William Brown

The most hypocritical, bootlicking, obsequious, slavelike, submissive, unfree journalists in Europe, this is Italy.
Carl William Brown

The Italians may be clever and quick-witted but they are not intellectuals. They lack wanderlust, indeed, most of them lack intellectual curiosity in every shape and form.
George Mikes

In Italy there are a lot of illegal things, since the law is illegal too.
Carl William Brown

Prices in Italy are only slightly lower than in France, which means that Italy is a very expensive country for everyone, natives, visitors and tourists.
George Mikes

Repetita iuvant. Italy, a land of great saints, poets, sailors, artists, statesmen, businessmen, lawyers, intellectuals, professors, journalists, whores, gangsters, religious parasites and dickheads.
Carl William Brown

The main characteristic of English conversation is that no one ever speaks; of Italian that everyone speaks at the same time. One iron law reigns supreme in Italian conversation: the survival of the loudest.
George Mikes

In Italy we have not a Common law legal system, we have a stupid one instead!
Carl William Brown

Hotel bills are scrupulously honest all over Italy… The only case which puzzled me occured in Naples. I wondered whether they were justified in adding 230 lire for heating to my bill in early June.
George Mikes

The Cathedral of this ancient and beautiful city of ……….* is of particular interest. It is the third largest Cathedral in Italy. It is a magnificent Gothic building (not pure Gothic but pure enough for the vast majority of tourists). The Italians, in their outlandish way, like to refer to the Cathedral as Il Duomo. * Fill in the name of the city with pencil. Rub it afterwards.
George Mikes

In Italy there are many illegal things, but stupidity is the most legal of all.
Carl William Brown

Italians intellectuals are few and far between. This is not a derogatory statement; nor is it a praise… Italy can boast of a number of intellectuals – brilliant and witty. But their number is small – much smaller than in France, England or Germany. The Italians, as a nation, do not read much. Observe a rush hour crowd in London or New York on the one hand and in Rome on the other. In London and New York one person in ten will be without a paper; in Rome one in ten will have a paper. The Italians will watch the women in the bus or tram, the crowd in the street or the passing shop-windows but they do not read.
George Mikes

The stupidest and most corrupted, dangerous, useless, incompetent, unfit and inefficient politicians in Europe: this is Italy.
Carl William Brown

On Amazon with Kindle Unlimited you can read the new edition of this book, that is Aphorismi et sententiae de italia et italis: Aforismi, citazioni, battute, invettive e riflessioni sull’Italia e gli Italiani (with English Quotes) by Carl William Brown

You can also download the first edition of the book with a lot of quotes about Italy by various authors from this link. Enjoy our beautiful country! 

All 20 Italian Regions Stereotypes Explained

Read also:

https://www.english-culture.com/christmas-in-italy/

https://www.english-culture.com/aphorisms-on-italy/

https://www.english-culture.com/quotations-on-italy/

Quotes by authors

Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

Entertainment

News and events

Christmas in Italy, traditions, customs, habits, markets, an article that explains all about the Christmas period in Italy with also the famous panettone recipe.

In Italy today, Christmas is a time for families coming together and with the recently acquired wealth, this coming together is a great excuse for a boom in buying (expensive) consumer goods especially for children who normally are at the centre of most of the festivities. Italy is very much a religious country and even with growing secularism, Christmas is very much a religious festival, with carol singing, live cribs, and decorated windows in the main stores. This also brings out little quirks in our attitude towards religious feast days.

At Christmas families have awith usually plenty of tacky colourful lights and Santas and angels… not as simple and nice as the Christmas tree of Denmark!. Set up the nativity – usually under the tree – where baby Jesus will be added only on the night of the 24th after attending Mass ! This is, of course, for the true believers… It’s a strong tradional habit to go to Mass on the 24th evening (hoping there will be a coir singing in tune!) Usually we do not eat that much on Christmas Eve (strangely enough…) but we will definitively have some panettone (typical Italian tall cake/brioche full of pieces of dried fruit) with some Prosecco / Italian Champagne.

On the 25th the traditional starting course in Lombardia (region where I come from) is to have “cappelletti in brodo” (small filled tortellini , usually hand made if you have still a grandma that can cook, served in chicken stock). And then, of course, plenty more courses will follow! Presents are opened either on the 24th evening or 25th morning.

One of the most important ways of celebrating Christmas in Italy is the Nativity crib scene. Using a crib to help tell the Christmas story was made very popular by St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 (Assisi is in mid-Italy). The previous year he had visited Bethlehem and saw where it was thought that Jesus was born. A lot of Italian families have a Nativity crib in their homes. Having cribs in your own home became popular in the 16th century and it’s still popular today (before that only churches and monasteries had cribs). Cribs are traditionally put out on the 8th December. But the figure of the baby Jesus isn’t put into the crib until the evening/night of December 24th! Sometimes the Nativity scene is displayed in the shape of pyramid which can be meters tall! It’s made of several tiers of shelves and is decorated with colored paper, gold covered pinecones and small candles. A small star is often hung inside the top of the pyramid/triangle. The shelves above the manger scene might also contain fruit, candy and presents.

The city of Naples in Italy is world famous for its cribs and crib making. These are known as ‘Presepe Napoletano’ (meaning Neapolitan Cribs). The first crib scene in Naples is thought to go back to 1025 and was in the Church of S. Maria del presepe (Saint Mary of the Crib), this was even before St. Francis of Assisi had made cribs very popular! One special thing about Neapolitan cribs, is that they always have extra ‘every day’ people and objects (such as houses, waterfalls, food, animals and even figures of famous people and politicians!). Naples is also the home to the largest crib scene in the world, which has over 600 objects on it! In Naples there is a still a street of nativity scene makers called the ‘Via San Gregorio Armeno’. In the street you can buy wonderful hand made crib decorations and figures – and of course whole cribs!

One old Italian custom is that children go out Carol singing and playing songs on shepherds pipes, wearing shepherds sandals and hats. On Christmas Eve, it’s common that no meat (and also sometimes no dairy) is eaten. Often a light seafood meal is eaten and then people go to the Midnight Mass service. The types of fish and how they are served vary between different regions in Italy. When people return from Mass, if it’s cold, you might have a slice of Italian Christmas Cake called ‘Panettone’ which is like a dry fruity sponge cake and a cup of hot chocolate! Here’s a recipe for panettone. You can find out more about Christmas in Italy and Italian Christmas Recipes on this site.

For many Italian-American families a big Christmas Eve meal of different fish dishes is now a very popular tradition! It’s known as The Feast of the Seven Fishes (‘Esta dei Sette Pesci’ in Italian). The feast seems to have its root in southern Italy and was bought over to the USA by Italian immigrants in the 1800s. It now seems more popular in American than it is in Italy! Common types of fish eaten in the feast include Baccala (salted Cod), Clams, Calamari, Sardines and Eel.

There are different theories as to why there are seven fish dishes eaten. Some think that seven represents the seven days of creation in the Bible, other say it represents the seven holy sacraments of the Catholic Church. But some families have more than seven dishes! You might have nine (to represent the Christian trinity times three), 13 (to represent Jesus and his 12 disciples) or 11 (for the 11 disciples without Jesus or Judas!)!

The Christmas celebrations start eight days before Christmas with special ‘Novenas’ or a series of prayers and church services. Some families have a ‘Ceppo’ or Yule Log which is burnt through the Christmas season. In Italian Happy/Merry Christmas is ‘Buon Natale’, in Sicilian it’s ‘Bon Natali’ and in Ladin (spoken in some parts of the northern Italian region of South Tyrol) it’s ‘Bon/Bun Nadèl’. Happy/Merry Christmas in lots more languages.

Epiphany is also important in Italy. On Epiphany night, children believe that an old lady called ‘Befana’ brings presents for them. The story about Befana bringing presents is very similar to the story of Babushka. Children put stockings up by the fireplace for Befana to fill. In parts of northern Italy, the Three Kings might bring you present rather than Befana. On Christmas day ‘Babbo Natale’ (Santa Claus) might bring them some small gifts, but the main day for present giving is on Epiphany.

The Italian Panettone

A panettone (literally meaning “big loaf”) is a tall, dome-shaped cake risen with yeast. It has a somewhat light and airy texture but a rich and buttery taste, and it’s not very sweet. It’s a typical Christmas-time cake all around Italy and in Italian communities around the world, but it originates in the northern Italian town of Milan. It traditionally contains raisins and candied fruit (orange and citron zest) and is topped with crisp pearl sugar. More modern versions might substitute the candied fruit with chocolate chips.

Most Italians do not make panettone at home, for the simple reason that it is a rather lengthy and complicated process, requiring multiple risings. Usually, it is bought from a local baker or in a supermarket.

But if you are feeling ambitious and would like to make your own, the following is a rather classic recipe.
What You’ll Need

For the First Rising:
3/8 cup/90 g unsalted butter
5/8 cup/110 g sugar
4/5 cup/200 ml warm water
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
5 ounces/140 g? fresh yeast cake (or? biga; ask your baker for this)
6 egg yolks
3 1/3 cups/400 g flour
For the Second Rising:
2 1/3 cups/280 g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 egg yolks
1 teaspoon honey
5/8 cup/110 g unsalted butter
1/2 pound/200 g raisins
1/2 cup/100 g granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
A little flour, for dusting the work surface and
Optional: pan? pearl sugar (for decoration)
Optional: 1 cup candied orange and/or lemon peel, diced

How to Make It

The afternoon before you plan to bake the panettone, begin by cutting the butter into a small pot and melting it over a very low flame or a double boiler; keep it warm enough to remain melted. Dissolve the sugar in about 2/5 cup (100 ml) of warm water.
Put the melted butter, salt, and yeast cake in a mixing bowl (or better yet, the bowl of an electric mixer) and mix well. Next, add the yolks and sugar-water, mixing briskly. Sift in the flour, continuing to mix. If the dough is too stiff, add a little more water. Continue to mix briskly for about 25 minutes, throwing the dough against the sides of the bowl, until it has become smooth, velvety, and full of air bubbles. At this point, transfer the dough to a lightly floured bowl large enough for it to triple in volume, cover it with a heavy cloth, and keep it in a warm (85 F, 30 C) place for about 10 hours.

Wash the raisins, drain them well, and set them on a cloth to dry.
When the first rising time is up, turn the dough out onto your work surface (or return it to the mixing bowl) and work in the flour, vanilla, yolks, and honey. Mix briskly for about a half hour, then work in all but 2 tablespoons of the butter, which you will have melted as before, and a little water (just enough to make an elastic dough), to which you have added a pinch of salt. Continue working the dough until it becomes shiny and dry, and at this point add the fruit and zest, working the dough to distribute it evenly. At this point you can divide the dough into pieces of the size you want; if you want to make your panettone by weight, use a scale and figure that they’ll decrease in weight by 10% during baking.
Lightly grease your hands with the butter and round the balls of dough, then put them on a board or plate and let them rise in a warm place for about a half hour. At this point, lightly butter your hands again and put the panettoni in panettone molds (or put rings of stiff paper around their bases). Return them to their board and put them in a warm (68-80 F, 20-30 C, depending upon the season), humid spot to rise for about 6 hours.
Heat your oven to 380 F (190 C). Cut an x into the top of each panettone and put 2 tablespoons (30 g) unsalted butter over the cuts. Put the panettoni in the oven, and after 4 minutes remove them and quickly push down on the corners produced by the cuts. Return them to the oven and bake them until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out dry about 1 hour.

When chefs remove their panettoni from the oven, they put them upside down in special panettone holders to keep their flanks from collapsing. In a home situation, this is not practical, and you’ll simply have to cool your panettoni on a rack.
Some tips: Work the dough, if possible, with a standing dough mixer of the kind also used for making bread dough. Beating times with a mixer are on the order of 20 minutes, whereas hand-beating will require about 50.
The room where the panettone is made must be warm, about 72 degrees F (22 C). The flour should also be warm, about 68 F (20 C); what’s used is 00 grade (very fine all-purpose flour) and extremely dry. If it has been wet where you are, you may want to dry your flour in an oven, as it absorbs moisture unless it is tightly sealed. The water used should be warm, about 76 F (24 C).
Don’t forget a pinch of salt, because it stimulates rising.

Commercial bakers use a sourdough starter (i.e., wild yeast). Home recipes call for baker’s yeast.
The baking time will depend on the size of the panettone. Assuming an oven temperature of 400 F (200 C), half an hour will be sufficient for small to medium-sized panettoni, whereas larger ones will require considerably more. Home ovens are best suited to small-medium-sized panettoni.
If you want the surface of the panettone to be shiny, slip a bowl of water into the oven when the panettone is half-baked to raise the humidity.
Commercially sold panettoni are taller than they are broad. To obtain this effect at home, you’ll have to put a ring of heavily buttered thick paper around the dough when you put it in the oven or use a panettone mold . If you instead want a panettone that’s wider than it is high, like a normal bread loaf, simply put the dough in the oven. If you choose this course, you will want to put the dough on a pizza stone or similar.

Read also our other posts on Christmas;

Christmas markets in England ;

Christmas markets in Italy and Germany ;

Christmas quotes ;

60 great Christmas quotes ;

Christmas tree origin and quotes ; 

Ella Gray A Christmas story ;

Traditional Christmas Carols ;

Christmas short stories ;

Christmas jokes ;

Christmas cracker jokes ;

Funny Christmas Stories ;

Amusing Christmas stories ;

Christmas food ;

Christmas thoughts ;

Christmas story ;

Christmas in Italy ;

Christmas holidays ;

Christmas songs ;

Christmas poems ;

An Essay on Christmas by Chesterton ;

Quotes by authors

Quotes by arguments

Thoughts and reflections

Essays with quotes

News and events

Entertainment

60 sixty great Christmas quotes and aphorisms by famous authors selected by Carl William Brown for the World of English blog, that is English-culture.com

I wish you a Merry Christmas sparkle with endless love, gladness and goodwill.
Lailah Gifty Akita

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
George Carlin

Christmas can be hard for those who have lost loved ones. This year especially I understand why.
Queen Elizabeth II

At Christmas we must all be more good-natured, not more stupid!
Carl William Brown

My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?
Bob Hope

Let’s be naughty and save Santa the trip.
Gary Allan

What do you think of Christmas?” “I like it,” she said. “I think we should have it every year.”
Liz Flaherty

Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.
Steve Maraboli

At Christmas we should be more good, not stupider!
Carl William Brown

In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!’.
Dave Barry

Moving between the legs of tables and of chairs, rising or falling, grasping at kisses and toys, advancing boldly, sudden to take alarm, retreating to the corner of arm and knee, eager to be reassured, taking pleasure in the fragrant brilliance of the Christmas tree.
T. S. Eliot

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!
Charles Dickens

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.
Calvin Coolidge

Christmas ought to be brought up to date,” Maria said. “It ought to have gangsters, and aeroplanes and a lot of automatic pistols.
John Masefield

Christmas Eve is my favorite… I think the anticipation is more fun than anything else. I kind of lost that. The idea that something – food, traditions, an arbitrary date on the calendar – can be special because we decide it should be. We make it special. Not just for ourselves, but for others.
Kiersten White

Were I a philosopher, I should write a philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few occasions on which men become entirely alive.
Robert Lynd

The two most joyous times of the year are Christmas morning and the end of school.
Alice Cooper

From a theological point of view, Easter is the center of the Church year; but Christmas is the most profoundly human feast of faith, because it allows us to feel most deeply the humanity of God. The crib has a unique power to show us what it means to say that God wished to be “Immanuel” a “God with us”, a God whom we may address in intimate language, because he encounters us as a child.
Pope Benedict XVI

Christmas it seems to me is a necessary festival; we require a season when we can regret all the flaws in our human relationships: it is the feast of failure, sad but consoling.
Graham Greene

I think commercialism helps Christmas and I think that the more capitalism we can inject into the Christmas holiday the more spiritual I feel about it.
Craig Ferguson

It’s funny to think that Christmas – a time known for its joyful togetherness – can be the loneliest time of the year for some.
Giovanna Fletcher

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies!
Francis Pharcellus Church

Yes’ it’s true that I hate Santa too, dressed in his suit of silk. That’s why this year with the homemade cookies, I’m going to leave some poison milk.
Mark W. Boyer

If you can’t find the spirit of the holidays in your heart, you’ll never find it under a tree.
Michael Holbrook

Stupid rich nations sell arms to helpless poor nations; then at Christmas they collect toys to send to the children of families ruined by the various conflicts of the planet.
Carl William Brown

I have always thought of Christmas-time… as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.
Charles Dickens

T’was the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Clement Clarke Moore

Christmas isn’t a parade or concert but a piece of home you keep in your heart wherever you go.
Donna VanLiere

The Christmas story is penmanship of the most brilliant sort, where God crafted a beginning that would never be subject to an ending.
Craig D. Lounsbrough

Christmas is supposed to be this time when everyone is nice to one another and forgives one another and all that, but the true meaning of Christmas is presents. And in the real world, Santa’s not fair. Rich kids get everything and poor kids get secondhand crap their parents bust their asses to afford. It costs money just to sit on Santa’s lap.
Holly Black

There’s no experience quite like cutting your own live Christmas tree out of your neighbor’s yard.
Dan Florence

And then she realized that after that Christmas party, she didn’t really lose anything, except respect for everyone.”
Crystal Woods

Of course there is a Santa Claus. It’s just that no single somebody could do all he has to do. So the Lord has spread the task among us all. That’s why everybody is Santa Claus. I am. You are.”
Truman Capote

The three phases of Santa belief: Santa is real; Santa isn’t real; Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.
Alton Thompson

There is at Christmas time a great deal of hypocrisy, honourable hypocrisy, hypocrisy undertaken pour le bon motif, c’est entendu, but nevertheless hypocrisy!
Agatha Christie

I am sorry to have to introduce the subject of Christmas into these articles. It is an indecent subject; a cruel, gluttonous subject; a drunken, disorderly subject; a wasteful, disastrous, subject; a wicked, cadging, lying, filthy, blashphemous, and demoralizing subject. Christmas is forced on a reluctant and disgusted nation by the shopkeepers and the press: on its own merits it would wither and shrivel in the fiery breath of universal hatred; and any one who looked back to it would be turned into a pillar of greasy sausages.
George Bernard Shaw

I don’t think Christmas is necessarily about things. It’s about being good to one another, it’s about the Christian ethic, it’s about kindness.
Carrie Fisher

Christmas is best pondered, not with logic, but with imagination.
Max Lucado

I once bought my kids a set of batteries for Christmas with a a note on it saying, toys not included.
Bernard Manning

Keeping Christ in Christmas” is like showing up at someone’s house every year, insisting on a party they never planned and never agreed to.
Rebecca McKinsey

From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.
Katharine Whitehorn

Christmas time! That man must be a misanthrope indeed, in whose breast something like a jovial feeling is not roused—in whose mind some pleasant associations are not awakened—by the recurrence of Christmas.
Charles Dickens

Halloween isn’t the only time for ghosts and ghost stories. In Victorian Britain, spooky winter’s tales were part of the Christmas season, often told after dinner, over port or coffee.
Michael Dirda

Christmas is a conspiracy to make single people feel lonely.
Armistead Maupin

What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.
Phyllis Diller

A good conscience is a continual Christmas.
Benjamin Franklin

Christmas, my child, is love in action. Every time we love, every time we give, it’s Christmas.
Dale Evans Rogers

And so this is Christmas…what have you done?
John Lennon

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph.
Shirley Temple

Perhaps the best Yuletide decoration is being wreathed in smiles
Author Unknown

We were so poor that my old man would go outside every Christmas and shoot his gun then come back and tell us that Santa Claus had committed suicide
Jack La Motta

The Pope: the only who never sees his boss, even at Christmas.
Author Unknown

What kind of Christmas present would Jesus ask Santa for?
Salman Rushdie

Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.
G. K. Chesterton

People can’t concentrate properly on blowing other people to pieces if their minds are poisoned by thoughts suitable to the twenty-fifth of December.
Ogden Nash

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.
Harlan Miller

Santa Claus has the right idea – visit people only once a year.
Victor Borge

Christmas is a time when you get homesick – even when you’re home.
Carol Nelson

I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark
Dick Gregory

Christmas is a necessity. There has to be at least one day of the year to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.
Eric Sevareid

Christmas is a holiday that we celebrate not as individuals nor as a nation, but as a human family.
Ronald Reagan

There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes.
G.K. Chesterton

Our Playlist of best Christmas songs

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100 fantastic quotes and aphorisms by great and famous authors and writers edited for the World of English blog by Carl William Brown, a sincere literary avenger. (Find out more about him on Amazon).

We are all born mad. Some have the fortune to remain so.
Carl William Brown Via Ionesco

The primary quality of genius is not perfection but originality, the opening of new boundaries.
Arthur Koestler

The meaning is a stone in the mouth of the signifier.
Jacques Lacan

My aphorisms are certainly a richer form of literature than the Bible itself, but you’ll see how long it will take before they’re translated into 1,400 languages.
Carl William Brown

The only intelligent tactical response to life’s horror is to laugh defiantly at it.
Søren Kierkegaard

The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture on the verge of descending into barbarism.
Hannah Arendt

The oppressor would not be so strong if he did not have accomplices among the oppressed.
Simone de Beauvoir

The origin of philosophy is due to the intellectual wonder and emotional disgust one feels when one pauses to observe the horrible imbecility of humanity.
Carl William Brown

The valor that struggles is better than the weakness that endures.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge but the refusal to acquire it.
Karl R. Popper

Don’t let the bastards grind you down.
Margaret Atwood

It is very simple to be happy, but it is very difficult to be simple.
Rabindranath Tagore

Aristotle said that choice, not chance, determines your destiny; if it weren’t that most of the times choices are directed mainly by chance.
Carl William Brown

And it is the thought of death that ultimately helps us to go on living.
Umberto Saba

Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.
Seneca

We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.
Rabindranath Tagore

Per gli amanti dei ponti. Il più grande ponte che esiste in Italia è quello tra la stupidità degli elettori e l’imbecillità degli eletti.
Carl William Brown

I like mathematics because it is not human and has nothing particular to do with this planet or with the whole accidental universe – because, like Spinoza’s God, it won’t love us in return.
Bertrand Russell

Few men think; yet all have opinions.
George Berkeley

What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean.
Isaac Newton

If you are afraid of loneliness, don’t marry.
Anton Chekhov

My brain tries to cheat time and itself through memory, which moves between the spaces of places from my past.
Carl William Brown

When the market deviates from your analysis, you have to cut losses without fuss or emotions.
Alexander Elder

A writer is always unwelcome at the family table. Because we notice things. And then we use them.
Elizabeth Hardwick

Most of us are mediocre. Even the most talented are mediocre because their talent is partial, limited, narrow. A gift doesn’t lift you out of mediocrity.
Jiddu Krishnamurti

One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washed it away: Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
Edmund Spenser

Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.
Robert Heinlein

To old people, all young people are idiots except their own grandchildren. They are geniuses.
Carl William Brown

Genius requires solitude; that is the secret of inventiveness.
Nikola Tesla

None proclaim their innocence so loudly as the guilty.
Samuel Johnson

Before Man goes to the stars he should learn how to live on Earth.
Clifford D. Simak

We have, in fact, two kinds of morality side by side one which we preach but do not practise, and another which we practise but seldom preach.
Bertrand Russell

A wise man among the ignorant is as a beautiful girl in the company of blind men.
Saadi

A civilized man is one who will give a serious answer to a serious question. Civilization itself is a certain sane balance of values.
Ezra Pound

The real philosopher and artist must necessarily be stateless, citizen of the world, considering history as a bunch of shitty facts and power as the emblem of human imbecility.
Carl William Brown

The best definition of man is: a being that goes on two legs and is ungrateful.
Fyodor Dostoevsky

I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allan Poe

The more distinctly a man knows, the more intelligent he is, the more pain he has; the man who is gifted with genius suffers most of all.
Arthur Schopenhauer

Philosophy is by its nature something esoteric, neither made for the mob nor capable of being prepared for the mob.
Georg Friedrich Hegel

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.
Oscar Wilde

The ruling class fears education because it makes obedience impossible.
Karl Marx

All morons hate it when you call them a moron.
Jerome D Salinger

Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child.
Arthur Schopenhauer

A good aphorism should not only highlight obvious things, even if expressed in an original way, but also evoke solutions, though unpleasant for human stupidity.
Carl William Brown

Never confuse education with intelligence, you can have a PhD and still be an idiot.
Richard P. Feynman

The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer somebody else up.
Mark Twain

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darkness of other people.
Carl Jung

See, people with power understand exactly one thing – violence.
Noam Chomsky

I was educated once – it took me years to get over it.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain

First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
Epictetus

It’s only because of their stupidity that they’re able to be so sure of themselves.
Franz Kafka

Patience is not the ability to wait, but the ability to keep a good attitude while waiting.
Joyce Meyer

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke

The rich rob the poor and the poor rob one another.
Sojourner Truth

It is dangerous to be right in matters about which the established authorities are wrong.
Voltaire

The truth has no defense against a fool determined to believe a lie.
Mark Twain

The more distinctly a man knows, the more intelligent he is, the more pain he has; the man who is gifted with genius suffers most of all.
Arthur Schopenhauer

The real philosopher and artist must necessarily be stateless, citizen of the world, considering history as a bunch of shitty facts and power as the emblem of human imbecility.
Carl William Brown

He who thinks does not believe, he who believes does not think.
Arthur Schopenhauer

A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something.
Plato

De gustibus non disputandum est utque omnia res in principia parva sunt.

The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.
John Burroughs

I’m only responsible for what I say, not for what you understand.
John Wayne

A fool is known by his speech, and a wise man by his silence.
Pythagoras

To be alone is the fate of all great minds.
Arthur Shopenhauer

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
Voltaire

The world is so full of simpletons and madmen, that one need not seek them in a madhouse.
Johann W Goethe

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.
Socrates

To live without philosophizing is in truth the same as keeping the eyes closed without attempting to open them.
Rene Descartes

The minute you get a religion you stop thinking. Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas.
Ray Bradbury

Intelligent men are cruel. Stupid men are monstrously cruel.
Jack London

A saint is a person who behaves decently in a shockingly indecent society.
Kurt Vonnegut

Some physicists say that time doesn’t exist, and I can agree with that; but then remove it from your banal formulas, which in any case won’t save you from the universal stupid entropy.
Carl William Brown

I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.
Johannes Kepler

Suffering comes from our view of things, not from the things themselves.
Marcus Aurelius

I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.
Johannes Kepler

When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease, that means it cannot be cured.
Anton Chekhov

Idleness is the beginning of all vice, the crown of all virtues.
Franz Kafka

Life is a catastrophe of consciousness.
Emil Cioran

Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.
Marshall McLuhan

La violenza è l’ultimo rifugio degli incapaci.
Isaac Asimov

The very impulse to write springs from an inner chaos crying for order, for meaning.
Arthur Miller

A philosopher who is not taking part in discussions is like a boxer who never goes into the ring.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein

If you are going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill

The aim of war is not to kill the enemy, but to destroy his will to fight.
General Sir Frank Kitson

A true warrior fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.
G.K. Chesterton

The essence of the Navy, its very soul, is that it is always ready for war.
Admiral Sir John Fisher

The enemy is not beaten until he thinks he is.
Field Marshal Sir Claude John Eyre Auchinleck

It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished, unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
Voltaire

People will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.
Aldous Huxley

An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.
Ernest Hemingway

The greater the outward show, the greater the inward poverty.
J. Krishnamurti

Nothing can be more hopeless than a nation of disillusioned bigots, who have lost the capacity to be rational, and have no longer any outlet but despair for their irrationality.
Bertrand Russell

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.
Mark Twain

There are no nations! There is only humanity. And if we don’t come to understand that right soon, there will be no nations, because there will be no humanity.
Isaac Asimov

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.
Aldous Huxley

I don’t hate people. I just feel better when they aren’t around.
Charles Bukowski

There is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.
Virginia Woolf

I have no faith in human perfectability. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active – not more happy – nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago.
Edgar Allan Poe

Behind every sentence lies a storm trying to make sense of itself. Writing isn’t just words on paper, it’s chaos learning to breathe.

In every real man a child is hidden that wants to play.
Friedrich Nietzsche

The doctor sees all the weakness of mankind; the lawyer all the wickedness, the theologian all the stupidity.
Arthur Schopenhauer

We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.
Immanuel Kant

I know nothing more stupid and indeed vulgar than wanting to be right.
Paul Valéry

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing, and by falling over.
Richard Branson

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Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Guy Fawkes Night or Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain.This article talks about its origin, celebrations, tradition and customs. Guy Fawkes Day is not a public holiday. Businesses have normal opening hours. A firework display to celebrate Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night.

Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes and some friends, a group of provincial English Catholics, tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder and assasinate the Protestant King James I of England and replace him with a Catholic head of state; like many people (in the past as well as now!) they didn’t like the government.

The attempt failed and Guy Fawkes was caught and arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot’s failure, in fact the parliament had said that every year on November 5th people should remember the Gunpowder Plot, that is the day when Members of Parliament were saved from a horrible death.

Within a few decades Gunpowder Treason Day, as it was known, became the predominant English state commemoration, but as it carried strong Protestant religious overtones it also became a focus for anti-Catholic sentiment. Puritans delivered sermons regarding the perceived dangers of popery, while during increasingly raucous celebrations common folk burnt effigies of popular hate-figures, such as the pope. Towards the end of the 18th century reports appear of children begging for money with effigies of Guy Fawkes and 5 November gradually became known as Guy Fawkes Day.

Towns such as Lewes and Guildford were in the 19th century scenes of increasingly violent class-based confrontations, fostering traditions those towns celebrate still, albeit peaceably. In the 1850s changing attitudes resulted in the toning down of much of the day’s anti-Catholic rhetoric, and the Observance of 5th November Act was repealed in 1859. Eventually the violence was dealt with, and by the 20th century Guy Fawkes Day had become an enjoyable social commemoration, although lacking much of its original focus. The present-day Guy Fawkes Night is usually celebrated at large organised events, centred on a bonfire and extravagant firework displays.

Settlers exported Guy Fawkes Night to overseas colonies, including some in North America, where it was known as Pope Day. Those festivities died out with the onset of the American Revolution. Claims that Guy Fawkes Night was a Protestant replacement for older customs like Samhain are disputed, although another old celebration, Halloween, has lately increased in popularity, and according to some writers, may threaten the continued observance of 5 November.

Little is known about the earliest celebrations. In settlements such as Carlisle, Norwich and Nottingham, corporations provided music and artillery salutes. Canterbury celebrated 5 November 1607 with 106 pounds of gunpowder and 14 pounds of match, and three years later food and drink was provided for local dignitaries, as well as music, explosions and a parade by the local militia. Even less is known of how the occasion was first commemorated by the general public, although records indicate that in the Protestant stronghold of Dorchester a sermon was read, the church bells rung, and bonfires and fireworks lit.

Organised entertainments also became popular in the late 19th century, and 20th-century pyrotechnic manufacturers renamed Guy Fawkes Day as Firework Night. Sales of fireworks dwindled somewhat during the First World War, but resumed in the following peace. At the start of the Second World War celebrations were again suspended, resuming in November 1945. For many families, Guy Fawkes Night became a domestic celebration, and children often congregated on street corners, or standing outside railway stations accompanied by their own figures effigy of Guy Fawkes made of soks and straw and dressed in old clothes. Collecting money was a popular reason for their creation, the children taking their effigy from door to door, or displaying it on street corners, while saying “Penny for the guy”.

However they were mainly built to go on the bonfire, itself sometimes comprising wood stolen from other pyres; “an acceptable convention” that helped bolster another November tradition, Mischief Night. Rival gangs competed to see who could build the largest, sometimes even burning the wood collected by their opponents; in 1954 the Yorkshire Post reported on fires late in September, a situation that forced the authorities to remove latent piles of wood for safety reasons.

Lately, however, the custom of begging for a “penny for the Guy” has almost completely disappeared. In contrast, some older customs still survive; in Ottery St Mary men chase each other through the streets with lit tar barrels, and since 1679 Lewes has been the setting of some of England’s most extravagant 5 November celebrations, the Lewes Bonfire. Generally, modern 5 November celebrations are run by local charities and other organisations, with paid admission and controlled access, anyway Guy Fawkes’ Day is finally declining, having lost its connection with politics and religion. But we have heard that many times before.

The Fifth of November

Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Guy Fawkes and his companions
Did the scheme contrive,
To blow the King and Parliament
All up alive.
Threescore barrels, laid below,
To prove old England’s overthrow.
But, by God’s providence, him they catch,
With a dark lantern, lighting a match!
A stick and a stake
For King James’s sake!
If you won’t give me one,
I’ll take two,
The better for me,
And the worse for you.
A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,
A penn’orth of cheese to choke him,
A pint of beer to wash it down,
And a jolly good fire to burn him.
Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!
Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!
Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

English Folk Verse (c.1870)

Perhaps most widely known in America from its use in the movie V for Vendetta, versions of the above poem have been wide spread in England for centuries. They celebrate the foiling of (Catholic) Guy Fawkes’s attempt to blow up (Protestant controlled) England’s House of Parliament on November 5th, 1605. Known variously as Guy Fawkes Day, Gunpowder Treason Day, and Fireworks Night, the November 5th celebrations in some time periods included the burning of the Pope or Guy Fawkes in effigy. This traditional verse exists in a large number of variations and the above version has been constructed to give a flavor for the major themes that appear in them. Several of the reference books on the subject cite even earlier sources.

Guy Fawkes also inspired the mask that V wears in the movie V for Vendetta, a dystopian political thriller directed by James McTeigue and written by The Wachowski Brothers, based on the 1988 DC/Vertigo Comics that were initially a British graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by David Lloyd published in black and white as an ongoing serial in the short-lived UK anthology Warrior, and only after  morphed into a ten-issue limited series published by DC Comics.

In modern society in general, this mask has become a symbol of anarchism, revolution, and civil disobedience, for example, demonstrators in Egypt and at Occupy Wall Street in New York City wore the iconic mask to show their disapproval of the government.

Within the graphic novel, the mask is a powerful symbol: it communicates the wearer’s allegiance to the spirit of Guy Fawkes, the man who tried and failed to blow up the Houses of Parliament in the 16th century and his opposition to the Norsefire government that controls England. One important element of the mask’s power as a symbol is its anonymity: anyone can wear the mask and embody the spirit of rebellion.

We see this first-hand in the graphic novel, as in the final chapters, Evey Hammond dons V’s mask and “becomes” V. In the end, then, the Guy Fawkes mask represents symbols at their most powerful: they can transform individual, flawed people into something more powerful and create movements.

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Independence Day of the American Nation, History, Celebrations, Curiosities, Quotes and Cultural Traditions. The United States of America is celebrating its 248th birthday on Thursday, July 4th, 2024.

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
Abraham Lincoln

Our greatest happiness does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of a good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all just pursuits.
Thomas Jefferson

Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living?
Mahatma Gandhi

The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.
Albert Camus

This Independence Day, remind us that we have the freedom to become more culturally competent and free for business, finance and social human sake.
Carl William Brown

He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.
Thomas Paine

Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.
Benjamin Franklin

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.
George Bernard Shaw

Independence Day is annually celebrated on July 4 and is often known as “the Fourth of July”. It is the anniversary of the publication of the declaration of independence from Great Britain in 1776. Patriotic displays and family events are organized throughout the United States. Independence Day is a patriotic public holiday celebrated by Americans worldwide. It is a day off for the general population, and schools and most businesses are closed.

Independence was claimed on July 4, 1776, from Britain, at which time our Democracy was born. We are the “land of the free and home of the brave”. Independence Day is a day of family celebrations with picnics and barbecues, showing a great deal of emphasis on the American tradition of political freedom. Activities associated with the day include watermelon or hotdog eating competitions and sporting events, such as baseball games, three-legged races, swimming activities and tug-of-war games. We are a diverse nation, made up of a variety of dynamic people.

Americans all over the world are gearing themselves up for huge Independence Day celebrations this week, which are now just a few hours away. This year marks the 243rd celebration of the American national holiday, and the day is typically honoured with parties and firework displays across the USA. Usually, a special event is also held at the White House to mark Independence Day, an occasion which is a huge celebration for many across the country.

Always held on July 4, Independence Day commemorates the signing of the Declaration of Independence of the US in 1776. Since Christopher Columbus led a Spanish expedition to the “New World” in 1492, much of what is modern day America was under European rule. Most of North and South America was divided up between the Spanish, English, French, Portuguese and Dutch governments. In 1606, King James I decided to establish permanent settlements in the Americas and formed the Colony of Virginia the following year.

At around the same time, the Dutch, Swedish, and French also established successful North American colonies – but these eventually came under the English crown. In 1732 the Province of Georgia was established and became the 13th colony ruled by the British Empire. In 1782 the British Parliament finally agreed to end all offensive operations in North America and the following year all parties signed the Treaty of Paris in which Great Britain agreed to recognize the sovereignty of the United States and formally end the war. The last British troops departed New York City on November 25, 1783, marking the end of British rule in the new United States.

In 1775, people in New England began fighting the British for their independence. On July 2, 1776, the Congress secretly voted for independence from Great Britain. Two days later, on July 4, 1776, the final wording of the Declaration of Independence was approved, and the document was published. The first public reading of the Declaration of Independence was on July 8, 1776. Delegates began to sign the Declaration of Independence on August 2, 1776. In 1870, Independence Day was made an unpaid holiday for federal employees. In 1941, it became a paid holiday for them.

The first description of how Independence Day would be celebrated was in a letter from John Adams to his wife Abigail on July 3, 1776. He described “pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations” throughout the United States. However, the term “Independence Day” was not used until 1791. Interestingly, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both signers of the Declaration of Independence and presidents of the United States, died on July 4, 1826 – exactly 50 years after the adoption of the declaration. It is also important to note that Native Americans lived in the country and each tribe had its own nation and government prior to the European settlers.

How is Independence Day celebrated?

Many people display the American flag outside their homes or buildings. Many communities arrange fireworks that are often accompanied by patriotic music. The most impressive fireworks are shown on television. Some employees use one or more of their vacation days to create a long weekend so that they can escape the heat at their favorite beach or vacation spot. Independence Day is a patriotic holiday for celebrating the positive aspects of the United States. Many politicians appear at public events to show their support for the history, heritage and people of their country. Above all, people in the United States express and give thanks for the freedom and liberties fought by the first generation of many of today’s Americans. The Statue of Liberty is a national monument that is associated with Independence Day.

In 1938, July 4 became a national paid holiday and Independence Day is therefore a federal holiday. If July 4 is a Saturday, it is observed on Friday, July 3. If July 4 is a Sunday, it is observed on Monday, July 5. Government offices and schools are closed. Some businesses may be closed as well. In some years, many employees use a proportion of their vacation days to create a long weekend. This can cause congestion in some places, particularly towards popular holiday destinations. There are many public events, parades, shows and fireworks displays. This may cause local disruption to traffic. Public transit systems do not usually operate on their regular timetables.

There are many firework displays around the country, accompanied by parties and parades. Some choose to make the most of not being at work to spend it with their families and friends. Trump blimp ‘twin’ set to crash President’s Independence Day rally. Bristol in Rhode Island has the nation’s longest-running Independence Day celebrations, with festivities taking place since 1785. The festivities there start mid June and conclude with a 2.5 miles military parade on July 4, followed by a ball.

The White House stages a large fireworks celebration and Macy’s fireworks in New York are famously screened across the country. This year, Jennifer Hudson is set to perform at the Macy’s show to celebrate the Wizard of Oz turning 80. According to CNN, the National Retail Foundation estimated that Americans spend $5.32 billion on food for cookouts and picnics to celebrate July 4.

Somewhat controversially, Donald Trump has announced plans for an Independence Day rally dubbed “Salute to America”. The festivities include a military parade – featuring tanks and fighter jets – through the streets of Washington DC, fireworks and a free concert at which thousands are expected to attend. The president has also announced he will address the nation from the Lincoln Memorial on the city’s National Mall.

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Independence Day Quotes

Juneteenth or Freedom Day

Here are the major U.S. holidays. In some cases, businesses, government offices, and schools will be closed, and also the International Days list.

New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day
MLK Jr. Day
President’s Day
Valentine’s Day
St. Patrick’s Day
Easter/Spring Break
Mother’s Day
Memorial Day
Father’s Day
4th of July
Labor Day
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
International Days List

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