Holidays are special in a variety of ways to many different individuals. As a society we place value on holidays. Propelled by the May 30 dedication to Memorial Day, celebrated this year Monday,
27, June is filled with special days on the way to one of the most significant to us in the United States, the Fourth of July Independence Day. This year, July 4 will be the 248th year since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. It takes time for its significance to sink in, both historically and for some individuals.
June 14 is Flag Day, a designation as a day to call attention to the United States Flag. June 16 will be Father’s Day. June 19 is Juneteenth a two-year-old federal holiday designed to call attention to the slavery history in the U.S. and to those who endured it and ended it. Slavery officially ended in 1863, enforced by Union soldiers, an objective of president Abraham Lincoln overcame objections to end slavery. The U.S. Civil War was 1861-1865, the War Between the States a bitter divide for some persons.
Summer will begin June 21 and lesser-known special days include June 12, Shavuot, the Jewish faith observance originally leading up to the second day of Passover, and St. John the Baptist Day in Canada, Monday, June 24.
Bernard Cigrand, a small-town Wisconsin teacher, originated the idea of Flag Day in 1885 for an annual Flag Day to be celebrated across the country every June 14. That year, he led his school in the first formal observance of the holiday. Then he practiced dentistry in the lower level of his home until 1920, when he moved his office to Aurora. Cigrand continued to live in Batavia until 1932.
Juneteenth was an unofficial holiday and part of the healing for black persons in the U.S., the end of slavery in 1863. It became a government-recognized holiday in 2021 when the bill was signed by president Joe Biden, the 11th federal holiday. With lower humid and warm days every day in June , it may feel to be a holiday.
•An important festival/holiday, was last weekend, the Aurora Greenfest in Aurora at the Prisco Community Center. The Saturday, June 8 all-day event, started and continued by Aurora resident Mavis Bates, promotes sustainability. This year was the 15th with the theme Electrify Your Life. There were many activities, both indoors and outdoors, speakers, food trucks. Each year there are new features and no doubt planning is under way for next year. It takes a village of supporters to put on the wonderful show.