The United States has pitched a curveball to the international community, and it’s one even a steady bat might not be able to hit. Because despite a lukewarm response from even its closest allies, the country has vowed to press ahead with plans for a free-form month of June, in order to make space for an annual Fourth of July weekend.
The Fourth of July, otherwise celebrated as Independence Day, is already a federal holiday in the United States. But when it falls on one of those cumbersome days which drag across the middle of the week – your Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and so on – law-abiding American citizens find themselves deprived of a long holiday weekend full of freedom-inspired fun.
People want to get together and chow down hot wieners, hamburgers, corn cobs, cherry pies, and peach cobblers. They want to witness the passing parades, eat copious amounts of ice cream, and loll on their front porches beneath bunting of red, white, and blue. They will wait all day with anticipation for the fireworks. But they will not wait to crack open a six pack or more of beer, and would like the opportunity to drink heavily beyond the confines of a single 24-hour slot.
Now they might just get the chance. The idea is for an expandable or collapsible June, which would carry more or fewer days so as to allow the Fourth of July to hang over the nearest suitable weekend. The move would require a change to the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII back in 1582. But the government says it is willing to take unilateral action to secure the needs of its people. It is not yet clear how this would affect the rest of July on into August.
Asked to comment on the proposal, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton said that a Fourth of July weekend would boost families of all types and identities, adding that it would turn a rejuvenated June into ‘A roving, flexible month more suited to the economic demands of modern society’.
Republican candidate Donald Trump questioned the commitment of Congress to the plan, waving his arms as he sputtered, ‘You want a Fourth of July weekend? They don’t want you to have a Fourth of July weekend! I’ll give you a Fourth of July Weekend!’, and Trump boldly flicked at the air. Meanwhile current President Barack Obama said that a Fourth of July weekend seemed like ‘A pretty good idea, all things considered’.
In History: The Declaration of Independence was adopted on 4 July 1776, as the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania made plain that the Thirteen Colonies now considered themselves independent of a warring Great Britain.
But as some constitutional scholars have noted, the resolution of independence was approved by vote two days earlier, on 2 July, the date that John Adams believed would go down as ‘the most memorable epoch in the history of America’. Describing the declaration of independence as a process rather than a day, academics, politicians, and laymen alike have suggested that this alone gives the United States some leeway when it comes to fiddling around with international dates.
