Celebrate Good Times, C’mon!

Posted on | June 18, 2010 | 2 Comments

In the early days of the American Revolution, a ragtag bunch of militia men from Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Rhode Island took control of a couple of hills surrounding the city of Boston. Upon discovery of this, British troops launched an attack on the wayward colonists on June 17, 1775 and thus gave future Americans the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Putting aside the fact that the battle actually took place on Breed’s Hill and not Bunker Hill, this particular battle is notable for a few things: (1) the British victory was essentially a Pyrrhic one, given the significant losses they sustained; (2) it proved the might and mettle of an untrained and inexperienced group of people fighting for their freedom; and (3) perhaps most importantly for citizens of Boston, it gave us another excuse for a legal holiday.

That’s right, folks. Yesterday was a legal holiday in Boston and thus all city government offices and extensions (such as the Boston Public Library) were closed so that all who wanted to could celebrate a battle that’s named for the wrong hill.

We Americans love our holidays and we seem to love any excuse to celebrate even the most obscure and random parts of life.

Besides Bunker Hill Day, Boston is also a proud celebrant of Patriot’s Day, commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and Evacuation Day, which marks the evacuation of British forces from Boston after the Siege of Boston (thank you, Wikipedia). While the rest of the country stands in awe of our revolutionary patriotism, we’ll just ignore the fact that Evacuation Day just happens to fall on March 17th, known around the rest of the world as Saint Patrick’s Day.

Yes, we love our random holidays. We wait with bated breath for an ugly rodent to poke his little head out of the ground, we invade retail stores with the fierceness of Roman Gladiators on Black Friday and we celebrate the spirit of the working man….by taking the day off from work.

However, should you still need a reason to celebrate, here are some holidays you may not be familiar with:

Former band geeks and would-be marine biologists can party together, since April is both National Manatee Awareness Month and National Marching Band Month. If you’re sick and tired of the overexposure of vampires (no pun intended), consider sticking it to them by celebrating National Zombie Month (in May, of course!). August will bring us National Goat Cheese Month and the “Happiness Happens” month, while men can put down their razors in November, as it’s “No Shave November” (the ladies, presumably, are exempt from the no-shave rule).

If month-long celebrations aren’t really your style, you could mark the passage of Save a Spider Day (March 14), Golden Spike Day (marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad on May 10), Towel Day (as a tribute to the late, great Douglas Adams on May 25), International Beer Day (August 5) and the certainly not-to-be-missed International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th.

As for me, I personally prefer the remarkable celebration of Guy Fawkes Night in the U.K. Also known as Bonfire Night, this festive evening remembers the Gunpowder Plot of November 1605, in which Guy Fawkes and a number of other Catholic conspirators attempted – and failed – to blow up Parliament and King James I during the opening session.

Think about it – it’s a holiday that celebrates failure. The irony is just so wonderful – had Guy Fawkes and his merry men succeeded, we might never have a celebration in their honor (and England might still be Catholic, but that’s neither here nor there). So I figure, if those ingenious Brits can celebrate the spectacular failure of Guy Fawkes, then by God, Boston can celebrate a battle that’s named after the wrong hill.

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

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