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I saw this as a "writer's block" blogging prompt on Livejournal. At first I was shocked: wasn't that just rampant American-centrism? And then I thought, was that just my own English-centrism?
England has never really become independent of anywhere, except perhaps the Roman Empire, but I don't think that has a good story and authoritative date attached (?)
But is it reasonable to assume that most countries have (at least one) independence day? And that its named and commemorated in a similar manner to America? Wikipedia has quite a comprehensive list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_independence_days) which covers surprisingly many countries (with some number of notable exceptions, UK, Russia, China, Australia[1]...)
[1] Which may yet get there one day :)
England has never really become independent of anywhere, except perhaps the Roman Empire, but I don't think that has a good story and authoritative date attached (?)
But is it reasonable to assume that most countries have (at least one) independence day? And that its named and commemorated in a similar manner to America? Wikipedia has quite a comprehensive list (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_independence_days) which covers surprisingly many countries (with some number of notable exceptions, UK, Russia, China, Australia[1]...)
[1] Which may yet get there one day :)
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Date: 2011-07-04 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-05 09:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-04 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-05 09:16 am (UTC)But no-one would have batted an eyelid if the question had been "How do you celebrate its Independence Day in your country". It wasn't obvious to me (it still isn't) that the concept of independence day is sufficiently genaralised that you can just assume it's called "Independence Day" without further qualification without any "do you celebrate...?" or "what do you call...?"
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Date: 2011-07-05 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-07 11:24 am (UTC)But this one just seemed especially over the top, when it strongly implied (if not stated) it was talking about the Fourth of July, and then asked "in your country..."
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Date: 2011-07-05 09:26 am (UTC)Also on the map there are some notable non-Western countries without Independence days as such; notables include Japan, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, (does Russia count as Western?)...
It seems likely that a majority of people live in countries celebrating some sort of Independence Day; Western Europe is a bit odd in that it consists of countries that don't - however this is merely going against the trend, rather than being some strange exception.
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Date: 2011-07-05 08:16 pm (UTC)Not saying it is a strange exception. Am saying that its not necessarily US-centrism to inquire about independence day. The question could have been better worded, but too many of the answers erased the rest of us. You are right about the non-Western European imperialists as well.
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Date: 2011-07-04 09:42 pm (UTC)Possibly May 1, as the union of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland? But that date is taken already here!
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Date: 2011-07-05 09:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-05 03:48 pm (UTC)Not that I don't admire your efforts to not be English-centric, mind. Most "-centrisms" need a bit less knee-jerking!
-J (currently in England, oddly enough)