Although the United States is young compared to other countries,
its culture and traditions are rich because of the contributions made
by the many groups of people who have come to its shores over the past
two centuries. Hundreds of regional holidays have originated from the
geography, climate and history of the different parts of the country.
Each state holds its own annual fair with local themes and music; and
some celebrate the day on which they joined the Union and became a
state.
Throughout the northeastern states, the main attractions are
festivals that welcome in the autumn as the leaves on the trees begin
to turn red, orange and yellow. Warner, New Hampshire holds a Fall
Foliage Festival which offers a wood-chopping contest and an auction.
Towns in Vermont welcome tourists who drive along the scenic mountain
roads to view the fiery colors of the leaves. When the weather becomes
chillier, and snow begins to fall, skiing tournaments attract
professional and amateur skiers in hilly towns such as Stratton,
Vermont.
The leaves turn colors a little later in October in Bedford,
Pennsylvania where the townspeople celebrate the fall foliage by
demonstrating ways of cooking that have been handed down to them by
their ancestors. In the nearby Pennsylvania Dutch region, people are
proud of their European ancestry, and celebrate it through seasonal
festivals. In Kutztown and other rural Pennsylvania towns, spring
festivals are common, with costumed pageants and parades.
Farther south, battles are re-enacted in historical celebrations
such as the Revolutionary War Days in Waldorf, Maryland. Confederate
Civil War general Robert E. Lee's birthday is commemorated in January
in various southern states, while other southern states observe
Confederate Memorial Day in April or June. People in many southern
states welcome spring with dancing.Celebrants of the Dixie Holiday in
Shreveport, Louisiana carry on the early American tradition of square
dancing; and in the National Square Dance Festival in Slade, Kentucky,
dancers, singers and musicians enter competition in hopes of winning
awards. In Biloxi, Mississippi, celebrants even dance in the streets
during the festival marking the blessing of the shrimp fleet in June.
A mass is held as well, in thanks for the fish harvested from the Gulf
of Mexico.
Folk fairs in the American Midwest offer foods of ethnic diversity,
because people of so many different nationalities have settled there.
In May, the townspeople of Orange City, Iowa and Holland, Michigan
celebrate their Dutch ancestry through a yearly Tulip Festival.
African Americans have begun to observe Kwanzaa, a holiday based on
the African celebration of the first harvest of the year, December 26
through January 1. Developed in 1966, by a black studies professor at
California State University, Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa celebrates the
unity and development of the African community. Founded upon the
"Nguzo Saba," or the seven principles of unity, self- determination,
collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose,
creativity and faith, Kwanzaa encourages African Americans to think
about their African roots in addition to their present- day life in
America. African Americans will exchange gifts as rewards for their
achievements; and they will light the "Mishumaa Saba" or seven candles
to remind them of the seven principles which unite them.
Winters are long in many midwestern states, so winter festivals
have become social events. In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Winter Carnival
offers exhibitions in skating, skiing, ice fishing and even snowmobile
races. In Houghton Lake, Michigan, a winter festival called
Tip-Up-Town USA offers a contest for the best sculpture carved in
ice!
Farther west, in the summer, religious ceremonies mark the Mormon
Miracle Pageant in Manti, Utah. In St. Maries, Idaho during Paul
Bunyan Days in August, townspeople commemorate this legendary American
lumberjack by holding tree-cutting contests. Aspen, Colorado holds the
annual summer Music Festival where musicians of classical and
contemporary music can perform or hold classes. The coastal town of
Santa Barbara, California pays tribute to the early settlers who came
from Spain, by performing historical plays during the Old Spanish Days
in August. The northwestern state of Oregon boasts a rose festival in
Portland, where bands play music in a parade of flowers and floats. In
nearby Washington, spring is welcomed in with a Daffodil Festival
offering a parade of floats made from these brilliant yellow
flowers.
Spring in the southwest finds the townspeople of Okeene, Oklahoma
catching snakes in the Rattlesnake Roundup. In Houston, Texans come to
the Astrodome to see cowboys ride horses and rope cattle during the
Livestock Show and Rodeo. Visitors watch the Hopi Indians carry on
their strong tradition of rain dancing, a combination of dancing and
prayer to invoke rain in a hot, dry August. Many other holidays of the
southwest offer a western theme. Tombstone, Arizona celebrates
Helidorado Days in the autumn, while in Tucson, cowboys and Indians
show their skills in La Festival de los Vaqueros, or the Cowboy
Festival. Lincoln, New Mexico holds Pony Express races in honor of the
first U.S. mail system and a fiddlers' convention as part of Lincoln
County Days.
Alaska and Hawaii, the two youngest states, have climates and
histories different from each other and the rest of the country. Nome,
Alaska has daylight almost twenty-four hours a day in June, so raft
races and midnight baseball games are the main events in the Midnight
Sun Festival. In Kodiak, a King Crab Festival during crabharvesting
season in May, and the Iceworm Festival in Cordova offers airboat
races.
Hawaii is warm the year round, and flower festivals were held there
even before it became a state. The Narcissus Festival in April has
Chinese origins. "Lei Day is May Day" say the celebrants on May first.
However, the lei, a large colorful garland of orchids worn around the
neck, is a sign of friendship and welcome for visitors to the islands
all year. The biggest celebration of the year is the legal holiday
Kamehameha Day on June 11. The festivities begin outside lolanl, the
only palace in America, when members of Hawaiian societies and
organisations sing and chant ancient praises for King Kamehameha the
First, who established a unified kingdom of islands by 1810. Honolulu
begins to fill with enormous floats, on which costumed people stand
among scenes from the history of Hawaii. Someone is chosen every year
to sit on the main float and represent King Kamehameha the First, who
was the first of five monarchs to rule Hawaii over a hundred
years.
These are only a small representation of the hundreds of holidays
and celebrations observed throughout the United States. Each state has
its own individual history and people, and the right to celebrate its
own tradition. But one thing is certain - all Americans welcome you to
celebrate with them!