I bet you thought that title looked odd. Well it does to me, too. How many Canadians do you ever hear talking about the 1st of July? Aside from people referring to the specific calendar date, of course. We all talk about our nation's birthday as Canada Day.
Yet for some reason, I rarely hear Americans talk about the Independence Day holiday. They talk about the 4th of July. Stores have 4th of July Long Weekend Sales. Out-of-office email notifications say they're away celebrating the 4th of July. Cities advertise their 4th of July festivities. Even the Wikipedia page starts with, "Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July..."
But why that is, I can't say. It just strikes me as odd, since in general I've observed Americans to be very patriotic people. I would have expected them to be proudly stating that this is the day they gained their independence. So why wouldn't they always refer to their nation's birthday as Independence Day?
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