US Independence Day 2022: What is the history behind it and how it's celebrated
Fireworks displays
As always, fireworks displays are the highlight of the July Fourth holiday. Two of the biggest pyrotechnic shows in the country will blast off over the National Mall in Washington, and over a mile stretch of New York City's East River, separating Manhattan from the boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn.
Two-year hiatus
Baltimore, for one, is resuming its Independence Day celebrations after a two-year hiatus. Colorful displays big and small will light up the night sky in cities from New York to Seattle to Chicago to Dallas. However others, particularly in drought-stricken and wildfire-prone regions of the West, will forgo them.
Phoenix is also again going without fireworks, not because of the pandemic or fire concerns but due to supply-chain issues.
Patriotic fervour
This year's Independence Day holiday is a time for Americans to show their patriotism and celebrate a personal sense of freedom by mingling with friends again and enjoying summer's simple pleasures.
Oath taking ceremony
In emotional ceremonies across the country, some newer residents will swear oaths of citizenship, qualifying them to vote for the first time in the upcoming midterm elections.
Chance to set aside political differences
It is a precarious time in the United States with an economic recession lurksing, and the national psyche still raw from mass shootings like those seen recently at a Texas elementary school and a New York supermarket.
Sharp social and political divisions have also been laid bare by recent Supreme Court decisions overturning the constitutional right to abortion and striking down a New York law limiting who may carry a gun in public.
But for many, July 4 is also a chance to set aside political differences and to celebrate unity, reflecting on the revolution that gave rise to history’s longest-lived democracy.
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