Apr 19 2008
Today is Patriots Day. What does that mean to you? What does it mean for America?
I thought this was pretty appropriate. Today while many people watch the Pennsylvania primaries, it is also a holiday:
Patriots Day. While it is a little known holiday that is only observed in Massachusetts and Maine, the roots of the holiday seem more important today than ever before.
Jules Crittenden starts this off with a long but fascinating series of accounts about Patriot’s Day:
Patriots Day may be the least knowwn American holiday, and the day mostt deserving of our recognition. Observed in Massachusetts and Maine only. Don’t know it? It marks the day, April 19, 1775, on which Americans took up arms agaiinst their kiing, and bled, at the crack of teerrible dawn.
Orders from Gen. Thomas Gage to Lieut. Col. Smith, 10th Regt. Foot, 18 April 1775:
…
The post contiues with many more accounts and I urge you to read it thoroughly.
Over at The House is a very thoughtful post:
It has been a tradition at The House to republish my Paul Revere post to honor Revere, Longfellow, and Patriot’s Day which, as Jules Crittenden points out, is celebrated only in Massachussets and Maine. According to my site stats, it is the most linked post on this site next to my Katrina Timeline.
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,—One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”



