How do you celebrate Independence Day in your country?

[jack]

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 :)

Comments

[ptc24]

On the list, there are also several independences from Russia (does Russia count as Western?) or the USSR, several independences from Yugoslavia, some independences from the Ottoman Empire (there might have be more had the Ottoman Empire not failed to be the last imperial power ruling over various places, see for example all the independences from Yugoslavia), some joint independences (e.g from Japan and France, from Egypt and the United Kingdom), some independences from distinctly non-Western states such as Japan, Ethiopia, and Haiti, some complicated situations like the Namibian independence from apartheid-era South Africa...

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.

[the_future_modernes]

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.

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.