When is American Independence Day?

I look after communications and marketing at Dairy Diary. I’m a busy mum and love home baking and cooking for my family. In my spare time I enjoy visiting the theatre, eating out with friends and exploring the great outdoors!

With contributions from Isabelle Goodman

American Independence Day, otherwise known as the Fourth of July, is a national holiday in the United States, celebrated annually on the 4th of July.

On the 2^nd July 1776, the Continental Congress voted in favour of independence, and two days later delegates from the 13 North American colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson, severing their political connections to Great Britain. From 1776 to the present day, July 4th has been celebrated as the birth of American independence.

Nowadays, this holiday marks a coming together of the American people to celebrate their history, heritage and independence.

In 2024, on July the 4th, the United States will celebrate the 248th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.

American Independence Day celebrations

This holiday, as well as being known as a representation of ‘the birth of American Independence’, is often considered one of the most significant dates in the American calendar, and is frequently used as an opportunity for various festivities. These range from large-scale parades and fireworks displays to more casual family gatherings and barbecues.

In New York, 3 million people come out to watch the Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacle on the Hudson River every year.

The origins of Fourth of July festivities

From as early as 1777, festivities including concerts, bonfires, parades, and the firing of cannons. Public readings of the Declaration of Independence became commonplace as a way to maintain morale amongst soldiers still fighting in the ongoing American War of Independence.

Philadelphia held the very first annual commemoration of independence on July 4, 1777, a tradition the state still honours to this day.

Later, in 1778, George Washington issued double rations of rum to all his soldiers to mark the anniversary of independence, and in 1781, several months before the key American victory at the Battle of Yorktown, Massachusetts became the first state to make July 4th an official state holiday, a tradition which was adopted by all 50 states in the following years.

By the 1870s, the Fourth of July was the most important secular holiday on the calendar. Congress passed a law making Independence Day a federal holiday on the 28th June, 1870 and reaffirmed this as a paid holiday in 1941.