How is it?
For reasons best explained by them, the US Embassy staff in New Delhi celebrated the American Independence Day on 19 February, almost five months ahead of 4 July.
The staff was served barbecue chicken and blueberry pie to the ‘beautiful sounds of American jazz’ on what they said was a beautiful day.
Referring to the celebrations, US Ambassador to India Timothy J. Roemer posted on his official blog ‘Roaming Roemer’, “After a few nervous days of cold and rain, the rain gods smiled upon us and the sun came out for a beautiful day as we held our National Day celebration at Roosevelt House (the US Embassy in New Delhi).”
Evidently then, the significance of the date 4 July is not as important as the spirit of the day.
Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao was the guest of honour at the function.
Officials from the embassy say the celebration was advanced mainly because many of them would be flying back home to escape New Delhi’s ‘horrible summer in July’.
The third Monday in February marks the President’s Day, which is a national holiday in the US. Thus, this week, the embassy enjoys a long weekend with three holidays including Saturday’s advanced National Day celebrations.
“This is the first time we are holding the National Day celebrations in New Delhi before 4 July. However, embassies in other countries have done so considering the climate variations of the place. We would be having a smaller sort of celebration on 4 July,” says Greg Aurit, Assistant Information Officer at the embassy.
The news was a bit of a puzzle for Americans. Rishik, a naturalised American citizen from Norfolk, Virginia, said, “It is strange that the US Embassy in New Delhi is celebrating the National Day almost five months before the official date. I would be glad if they celebrated it with other US citizens across the world on 4 July, as the date has a lot of significance historically.”
Clearly, the date 4 July is not as sacrosanct as we thought it was.
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main48.asp?filename=Ws190211USA.asp
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