VE Day: The War That Was Still Running
Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945 and Europe filled the streets. The war had four months left to run, and my grandfather was still a prisoner for every day of it.
Series: US Holidays (Page 10)
US HolidaysArmistice Day: What a Renaming Costs
For thirty-six years the United States called 11 November Armistice Day. Then it became Veterans Day, and a specific moment gave way to a general one.
US HolidaysBats Day: The Afternoon a Crowded Street Parted
Bats Day has brought the goth community to Anaheim since 1999. I went in 2006, dressed after a fashion, and watched Main Street part for a friend who had decided completely what she was doing.
US HolidaysTalk Like a Pirate Day: Why the Joke Survived
A private joke between two friends in 1995 became an international observance in 2002. I drove to a pirate faire for it once, in the worst costume present.
US HolidaysLincoln’s Birthday: The Hardest Job Anybody Has Held
Lincoln had about a year of formal schooling and taught himself everything else. Then he was handed a fracturing country, and he held it together without helping himself to the power the emergency offered.
US HolidaysWashington’s Birthday: The Man Who Gave It Back Twice
Washington was not the cleverest man in any room he entered. What he had was rarer: he could be trusted with power, and twice he handed it back when nobody could have made him.
US HolidaysPresidents Day: The Name Nobody Made Official
Federal law still calls the third Monday of February Washington's Birthday. The popular name spread anyway, and turned a day about a person into a day about an office.
US HolidaysGroundhog Day: When a Story Overwrote a Tradition
The forecast is worthless and the tradition is a century old. Then a film came out and the phrase stopped meaning the custom entirely, which almost never happens.
US HolidaysAlien Abduction Day: Why Invented Holidays Live or Die
There is no founding body and no origin story, which describes most of the modern calendar. The interesting question is why a handful survive and the rest evaporate.
US HolidaysSenior Citizens Day: Nobody Thinks Their Life Is Interesting
I have interviewed a great many people past retirement for books. Almost all of them apologized for not being interesting enough. They were wrong every single time.