Oktoberfest is a multi-national celebration of German culture, held annually in Munich, Germany and in many other locations worldwide. German immigrants to the United States before and during the Victorian Era brought the custom with them. The sixteen-day festival of parades, music, food, and folkloric dancing begins on the third Saturday of September each year. The 2016 holiday begins today, September 17, 2016.
LABOR DAY was born of the circumstances within our Victorian-era United States Industrial Revolution. Unions wanted safer working conditions and 12- to 16-hour work days shortened to 8- or 9-hours. Strikes and protests lead to reform, and from the first Labor Day parade in 1882 peaceful Labor’s Holidays began to take root state by state until in 1894, Labor Day was declared by the President of the United States as a Federal Holiday. This article contains newspaper accounts from era papers, vintage photographs, and a dash of American history surrounding summer’s last hurrah.
Victorian Americans not only observed Flag Day on June 14th–they created it. Flag poles on government property sported the star spangled banner. Private citizens raised the flag, draped patriotic bunting over porch rails and fences, and attended military parades. Most of all, they recalled what the American flag stands for, its symbolism, and the meaning of patriotism. The practice of observing Flag Day on June 14th, annually, had been in practice since the 1870s and become widespread, but it took well into the 20th century for a President of the United States to make the day a federal holiday.
The history of America’s Memorial Day, sometimes called Decoration Day, is rooted in the American Civil War.
The first Arbor Day was held in the early 1870’s in Nebraska. The event slowly became an annual occasion in all of the fifty States. This tradition of planting trees to beautify and forest the plains has benefited all states in the union. Quotes, a period newspaper article, and historic images enrich the historic understanding of this holiday’s origins.
