Blog Post

PATRIOTS’ DAY

  • By lemaster
  • 17 Apr, 2018

An official state holiday commemorating the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.

Description

The holiday was originally celebrated on April 19, the actual anniversary of the battles (fought in 1775). Since 1969, it has been observed on the third Monday in April in Massachusetts and in Maine (which until the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was part of Massachusetts). The Monday holiday creates a three-day long weekend. It is also the first day of a vacation week for public schools in both states and a school holiday for many local colleges and universities, both public and private.

The day is a public school observance day in Wisconsin. Florida law also encourages people to celebrate it, though it is not treated as a public holiday.] Connecticut begins observance in 2018.

Observances and re-enactments of the battles occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts (around 6:00 am) and the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts (around 9:00 am). In the morning, mounted re-enactors with state police escorts retrace the Midnight Rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes, calling out warnings the whole way.

The biggest celebration of Patriots' Day is the Boston Marathon, which has been run every Patriots' Day since April 19, 1897 to mark the then-recently established holiday, with the race linking the Athenian and American struggles for liberty  (marathons being so named after the Greek Battle of Marathon).

Observed by

  • Massachusetts
  • Maine
  • Wisconsin
  • Connecticut (starting 2018)
  • encouraged in Florida

Type - Historical

Celebrations - Boston Marathon

Observances - Battles of Lexington and Concord

Date - Third Monday in April

    History

    In 1894, the Lexington Historical Society petitioned the Massachusetts State Legislature to proclaim April 19 as "Lexington Day." Concord countered with “Concord Day.” Governor Frederic T. Greenhalge opted for a compromise: Patriots' Day. Patriots' Day was first proclaimed in Massachusetts in 1894 by Gov. Greenhalge replacing Fast Day as a public holiday. The idea was introduced to the Governor by the statesman from Lowell, Isaac Henry Paige. It was established on April 19, commemorating the date of the Battles of Lexington and Concord in 1775, and consolidating the longstanding municipal observances of Lexington Day and Concord Day. It also marked the first bloodshed of the American Civil War in the Baltimore riot of 1861, during which four members of the Massachusetts militia were slain and 36 injured. The dual commemoration, Greenhalge explained, celebrated "the anniversary of the birth of liberty and union." In 1938, with the generation that had fought in the Civil War largely off the voter rolls, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill establishing the holiday "in commemoration of the opening events of the War of the Revolution."

    Maine followed Massachusetts in 1907 and replaced its Fast Day with Patriot's Day. On June 10, 2017, Governor Dannel Malloy signed a bill establishing Patriots' Day as a statewide unpaid holiday in Connecticut. This means that starting April 2018, Connecticut will be the 4th state to recognize the holiday.

    Sporting Events

    The Boston Marathon is run on Patriots' Day every year, since its inception in 1897, even during the World War years.  Therefore sometimes the holiday is referred to as "Marathon Monday".

    The Boston Red Sox have been scheduled to play at home in Fenway Park on Patriots' Day every year since 1959. The games were postponed due to weather in 1959, 1961, 1965, 1967, and 1984, and canceled in 1995 because of the late start to the season. From 1968 to 2006, the games have started early, in the morning, around 11:00 am. The early start to these games usually resulted in the game ending just as the marathon is heading through Kenmore Square. However, since 2007 the marathon has started between 9:30 am and 10:00 am, resulting in the racers going through Kenmore towards the middle of the Red Sox game.

    By proadAccountId-347284 July 17, 2023

    As I was reviewing the readings from mass yesterday, I turned to my American Patriots Bible, edited by Dr Richard G. Lee (I would suggest you pick up a copy of this bible – it is fantastic). The first reading was from Zechariah, the second to the last book in the Old Testament, written 500 years before Christ. The theme of this book is the return of God to the City of Jerusalem.

    But God’s richest blessings are bestowed with certain responsibilities. * As he took his place as America’s 23rd President in 1889, Benjamin Harrison admonished his fellow citizens, “No other people have a government more worthy of their respect and love, or a land so magnificent in extent, so pleasant to look upon, and so full of generous suggestion to enterprise and labor. God has placed upon our head a diadem and has laid at our feet power and wealth beyond definition or calculation. But we must not forget that we take these gifts upon the condition that justice and mercy shall hold the reins of power and the upward avenues of hope shall be free to all people.”

     

    * American Patriots Bible , Dr Richard G. Lee. Copyright 2009 by Thomas Nelson Inc.

    By proadAccountId-347284 August 12, 2020

    On July 4, 1776 our Founding Fathers forged a new nation over 240 years ago with a Constitution which is perhaps the greatest document ever written, except for the Bible. The Constitution was dedicated to the ideals that it would not discriminate any people on the basis of race, religion, color or sex. Never before in the history of the world had a country that was blessed with so many rights and freedoms given to its people.  Now these rights and freedoms are being brutally challenged by our radical left wing Democrats.

    We the people have seen our cities burned, vandalized, precious monuments and buildings destroyed! Police cars were set on fire, children, police and citizens killed along with destruction of all kinds going rampant.

              The individuals doing these criminal acts of violence and murder are not being challenged by the radical left wing Democratic mayors of cities whose socialistic aim is to ruin our government and replace it with Marxist Socialism.

    A strong force in all this destruction is a group called “Black Lives Matter” because they say white people are racists and are keeping them in chains. If this is true then who is the party of racists and who is the party of chains. It is time to be accurate and honest about the history of black people and the Democratic party.

    Let us set the record straight, once and for all!!!

    The following article was sent to me that was named ,  

                            STUDENTS FOR TRUMP

    Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President. Lincoln wanted to free the slaves. Democrats fought the Civil War to keep the slaves in bondage. During this war thousands of white soldiers died for their black brothers.

              President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all slaves in America. Democrat slave owners were furious. Lincoln made equality for all and made black people part of the official Republican Party platform. Republicans wrote and passed the 13th amendment ending slavery forever in the United States. Most Democrats voted against it.

    Republicans wrote and passed the 14th amendment and granted citizenship & equal protection under the law to former slaves. No Democrats voted for it. Republicans wrote and passed the 15th amendment, allowing black slaves to vote. No Democrats voted for it.

    The first black senator was a Republican. The first black member of the United States House of Representatives was a republican and former slave. In fact, the first 23 black members of congress were all Republican.

              While Republicans were electing black people to congress, the Democrats were founding the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK was founded in opposition to the Republican Party. The KKK dedicated itself to a campaign of violence against the blacks and Republican leaders. The KKK wanted white supremacy fulfilled through electing Democrats.

              Democratic states passed racist Jim Crow laws that dehumanized black people. Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent the National Guard to protect black students integrating into all white schools in Little Rock, Arkansas. Who opposed this? The Democrats who ran that state.

              A segregationist Democrat ran for President every cycle until the 1980’s. The civil rights act outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion or sex.

              By percentage, more republicans voted for the civil rights act than democrats. Republican President Nixon used federal powers to desegregate even more states.

              Black Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas was nominated by George H. W. Bush. His son George W. Bush started an aids program that saved over 13 million lives, mostly in Africa.

              President Trump restored funding to historically black colleges and universities. President Trump passed the first step act achieving landmark criminal justice reforms. President Trump passed the tax cuts and jobs act which featured opportunity gains and incentivizing long-term investments in low income communities.  

    Under President Trump, unemployment for black Americans fell to the lowest number Americans have ever seen and black wages rose to the highest numbers in history.

              Meanwhile, Democratic Governor of Virginia wears black face multiple times and remains in office while Joe Biden says “You’re not black unless you vote for me!”

              So tell me, who are the racists that want to keep the blacks in bondage?  The Democrats or the Republicans?

              In conclusion, the Founding Fathers, in their Constitution, can say “Black Lives DO Matter”. And, that, it is their right to have equal rights and freedoms as citizens of the United States of America.                                    

     

    STUDENTS FOR TRUMP

     

     

     

    Joe Mastromatteo

    By proadAccountId-347284 December 9, 2019

     

    More than three-quarters of a century have passed since the "day that will live in infamy." Just before eight o'clock in the morning on December 7, 1941, a Japanese force made up of 350-plus planes, supported by submarines, cruisers, destroyers, and battleships, attacked Pearl Harbor , a U.S. naval station on Oahu, Hawaii.

    In total, 2,403 people died in the attack on Pearl Harbor. Japan destroyed 19 American ships, including the USS Arizona , which remains underwater. You know what came next. The aftermath of the attack plunged the country into World War II, making it, as TheNew York Times reported the next morning , "... the first time in its history, the United States finds itself at war against powers in both the Atlantic and the Pacific."

    But even now, 77 years later, there's probably a lot you don't know about Pearl Harbor. We look at five lesser-known facts about one December day that changed the course of history.


    By proadAccountId-347284 October 28, 2019

    COLUMBUS DAY and LYNCHING

     

    We bet you never thought you would see those two words together. We never did either….until this past week.

    Columbus Day 2019 was celebrated on Monday, October 14, 2019. Recently there has been a movement to change the name to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and several states and municipalities have embraced this name change. Why? Because they believe the Christopher Columbus was an evil man, who enslaved and killed many of the people he encountered in his quest to discover new lands. That’s a whole other topic.  

    And what about lynching? This past week, President Trump used the word to describe the current “impeachment hearings” against him that have been going on for the past few months.

    Webster defines the term lynching as the following: to inflict punishment upon, especially death, without the forms of law.

    Dictionary.com describes it similarly: to put to death, especially by hanging, by mob action and without legal authority.

    Used figuratively, one could say that lynching refers to the process of persecution without due process.

    Of course, the word is a disturbing one to anyone who knows American history. There were close to 5,000 deaths in the USA in the 20th century by lynching. Gross and despicable. Unacceptable.  No question about it. People were killed simply because someone didn’t like them.

    But did you know that the largest lynching in US history involved white victims? That’s right. It happened in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1891. 19 men were imprisoned unjustly during the murder trial of New Orleans police chief David Hennessey. All men were of Italian/Sicilian descent. The racism against Italian immigrants at the time was rampant. And after the men were acquitted, they were put back in prison. The next day, a mob broke into the prison and lynched the suspects. 11 were killed. 8 hid throughout the prison and escaped death. It was at that time when President Benjamin Harrison, in an effort to ease tensions between Italy and the US due to the incident, declared the first nationwide celebration of Columbus Day in 1892, commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Italian explorer’s landing in the new world.

     

    How fitting it is, then, that this modern-day “lynching” of President Trump is occurring in October, the month our nation celebrates Columbus Day, a day that was put forth following the largest lynching in our nations’ history?

     

    Source: Wikipedia.

    .

    April 30, 2019

    Our Founding Fathers were strong believers in the Bible, which shaped their thinking and writing of their laws and documents. Their principles and ethics of Judeo Christian values were a foundation for our Founding Fathers that formed their political ideas, which resulted in the Republic and Constitution that we have today.

     

                One such document is the Proclamation of the National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer of the Second Continental Congress of June 12, 1775, setting aside July 20, 1775 for such a day. This Proclamation was issued shortly after the Battles of Lexington and Concord, when the War of American Independence had just begun.

     

                This was the first National Day of Prayer, the second being May 17,1776. Note the conciliatory language towards Britain as compared to the Second National Day. This document is published in the Journals of the Continental Congress, and signed by John Hancock, President of the Congress, and affirmed by Charles Thomson, Secretary. Our Christian heritage is clearly evident in this Proclamation.

     

                In 1795 President George Washington issued a Proclamation. When he said;

     

                I, George Washington, President of the United States, do recommend to all religious societies and denominations and to all persons whomsoever within the United States, to set apart and observe a day of Public Thanksgiving and Prayer.

               

                With devout reverence and affectionate gratitude, to acknowledge our many and great obligations to Almighty God, and to implore Him to continue and confirm the blessings we experience.

               

                Therefore, on that day we shall meet together to render sincere thanks for the mercies which distinguish our lot as a nation;

               

                Especially for the possession of constitutions of government which unite and establish liberty with order, and to also preserve our peace, both foreign and domestic and for reasonable control which has been given to a spirit of disorder.

               

                This shall promote prosperity for the condition of our affairs, both public and private, and at the same time humbly and fervently beseech the Kind Author of these blessings graciously to prolong them to us.

               

                To imprint on our hearts a deep and solemn sense of our obligations for them.

                To teach us rightly to estimate their immense value.

                To preserve us from the arrogance of prosperity.

                By our gratitude for these blessings, and by a corresponding conduct as citizens and as men to render this country more and more a safe and propitious asylum for the unfortunate of other countries.

               

                To extend among us true and useful knowledge.

                To establish habits of sobriety, order, and morality and piety.

                                       

     

                            President George Washington January 1, 1795

     

     

                In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln continued a call for a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer.

     

                In 1952 Congress established a National Day of Prayer as an annual event and signed by President Truman.

     

                In 1988 President Reagan designated the annual National Day of Prayer as the first Thursday in May.

    By proadAccountId-347284 December 6, 2018
    Memorial Day or Decoration Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces.
    By lemaster June 4, 2018
    Memorial Day or Decoration Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country's armed forces.
    By proadAccountId-347284 January 2, 2018

    The story of Lexington and Concord began when the British made plans to seize a stash of Patriot munitions stored in Lexington. The plan was discovered, and Paul Revere made his “immortal” ride to warn of the dastardly plot. Minute men sprang into action to oppose the British soldiers marching down the road.

    There was a standoff that finally resulted in the mysterious “shot heard round the world,” which no one knows who fired, that began the American Revolution. Americans fought a hit and run style action against the British at Lexington and Concord and successfully moved the munitions to another, safer, location.

    In Massachusetts and Maine, Patriots’ Day is basically a day off work for adults and out of school for kids. But in the towns of Lexington and Concord, reenactments of the battles fought there long ago are held every year. Those who come to see the reenactments also can ring the warning bell that warned the British were coming and attend seminars, concerts, races, and other special events. We strongly encourage you to attend these glorious events on Patriots’Day, and bring your children so that they will learn some valuable and incredible history.

    Of course, we are blessed to have someone put to life the actions of one we consider to be an Original Founding Father, Paul Revere. Without him warning all the people that the British were coming, who knows what would have happened to the Patriots and Minutemen of the day back in 1775? So, we present to you Mr Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem of Paul Revere.

    Share by: