Patriots' Day

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Patriots' Day
Patriots' Day
Statue of the Lexington Minuteman on the Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts
Observed by Massachusetts
Maine
Wisconsin
Connecticut (since 2018)
North Dakota (since 2019)[1]
Encouraged in Florida
Type Historical
Date Third Monday in April
Celebrations Boston Marathon
Observances Battles of Lexington and Concord and Menotomy
Patriots' Grave in the Old Burying Ground cemetery, Arlington, Massachusetts

Patriots' Day (so punctuated in several U.S. states, but Patriot's Day in Maine) is an annual event, formalized as several state holidays, commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord, and the Battle of Menotomy, the first battles of the American Revolutionary War.

Observance

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[2] and in Maine[3] (which until the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was part of Massachusetts). The Monday holiday creates a three-day long weekend.

The day is a public school observance day in Wisconsin.[4] Florida law also encourages people to celebrate it, though it is not treated as a public holiday.[5] Connecticut began observance in 2018.[6]

History

Fast Day was a holiday observed in some parts of the United States between 1670 and 1991.

"A day of public fasting and prayer," it was traditionally observed in the New England states. It had its origin in days of prayer and repentance proclaimed in the early days of the British American colonies by Royal Governors, to avoid such calamities as plagues, natural disasters or crop failures; it was common to hold a Fast Day before the spring planting (cf. rogation days).[7] It was observed by church attendance, fasting, and abstinence from secular activities.

Fast Day had lost its significance as a religious holiday by the late 19th century. It was abolished by Massachusetts in 1894, when that state replaced their Fast Day, celebrated on the third Monday in April, with Patriots' Day, commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Menotomy on the first day (April 19, 1775) of the American Revolutionary War.[8] Maine, which also celebrated Fast Day on the third Monday in April, changed it to Patriot's Day (note different punctuation[9] in 1907.[8] Fast Day continued in New Hampshire until 1991, with the late April holiday signifying only the opening of the summer tourist season; the state dropped Fast Day in 1991, replacing it with the January Civil Rights Day, which they renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Day (the last U.S. state to do so) in 1999.[7][10]

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. However the biggest battle fought on this day was in the town of Menotomy, now Arlington, Massachusetts.[11] Menotomy was on the Concord Road between Lexington and Concord and Boston.[12] While the fighting was going on in Lexington and Concord, 5,100 militia men arrived in Menotomy from Middlesex and Essex Counties[13][14]. These men took up positions along the road the British troops would take on their retreat to Boston.[15] They placed themselves in and around houses, stone walls, fields and barns. The bloodiest fighting of the first day of the American Revolution took place inside a single house, the Jason Russell House, in Menotomy[16][17]. Eleven militia men died in this house fighting British troops trained in bayonet fighting.[18]

The Battles of Lexington and Concord were the first military engagements of the American Revolutionary War. They were fought on April 19, 1775, in Middlesex County, Province of Massachusetts Bay, within the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln, Menotomy (present-day Arlington), and Cambridge, near Boston. The battles marked the outbreak of open armed conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and its thirteen colonies in the mainland of British North America.

About 700 British Army regulars, under Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith, were ordered to capture and destroy military supplies that were reportedly stored by the Massachusetts militia at Concord. The Patriot colonists had received intelligence weeks before the expedition which warned of an impending British search, and had moved much, but not all, of the supplies to safety. They had also received details about British plans on the night before the battle, and information was rapidly supplied to the militia.

The first shots were fired just as the sun was rising at Lexington. The militia were outnumbered and fell back. Other British colonists, hours later at the North Bridge in Concord, fought and defeated three companies of the king's troops. The outnumbered soldiers of the British Army fell back from the Minutemen after a pitched battle in open territory.

More Minutemen arrived soon thereafter and inflicted heavy damage on the British regulars as they marched back towards Boston. Upon returning to Lexington, Smith's expedition was rescued by reinforcements under Hugh, Earl Percy. A combined force of fewer than 1,700 men marched back to Boston under heavy fire in a tactical withdrawal and eventually reached the safety of Charlestown.

The British failed to maintain the secrecy and speed required to conduct a successful strike into hostile territory, yet they did destroy some weapons and supplies. Most British regulars returned to Boston. The occupation of surrounding areas by the Massachusetts Militia that evening marked the beginning of the Siege of Boston.

The battles, particularly the skirmish at the North Bridge, are known as the "shot heard 'round the world," described in Ralph Waldo Emerson's Concord Hymn.


Patriots' Day was first proclaimed in Massachusetts in 1894 by Gov. Greenhalge, replacing Fast Day as a public holiday.[9] 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 and the larger Battle of Menotomy 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. In Menotomy, now Arlington[19], 25 militia men died and 40 British soldiers were killed.[20] The dual commemoration, Greenhalge explained, celebrated "the anniversary of the birth of liberty and union". It is likely that the battles that took place in Menotomy are not as well known as the smaller battles in Lexington and Concord because the town has had several names since that day in 1775. 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".[21]

Maine followed Massachusetts in 1907 and replaced its Fast Day with Patriot's Day.[9] On June 10, 2017, Governor Dannel Malloy signed a bill establishing Patriots' Day as a statewide unpaid holiday in Connecticut.[6] On April 16, 2018 Connecticut became the 4th state to recognize the holiday.[22][23] On April 15, 2019, North Dakota became the fourth state, and first Western state, to adopt Patriots' Day as a holiday.[1]

Activities

Battle of Lexington Patriots Day Reenactment
Acton Minutemen and citizens marching from Acton to Concord on Patriots' Day 2012

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) and in Arlington, Massachusetts on the Sunday before Patriot's Day. Tours are available of the Jason Russell House in Arlington, Massachusetts on Sunday and Monday[24][25]. On Monday morning, mounted re-enactors with state police escorts retrace the Midnight Rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes, calling out warnings the whole way.[citation needed]

The most significant 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.[21]

Sporting events

The Boston Marathon is run on Patriots' Day every year, since its inception in 1897, even during the World War years.[21] Therefore, sometimes the holiday is referred to as "Marathon Monday".[26] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Boston Marathon was rescheduled to September in March[27] and ultimately canceled in May.[28]

The Boston Red Sox have been scheduled to play at home in Fenway Park on Patriots' Day every year since 1959. The game was postponed due to weather in 1959, 1961, 1965, 1967, 1984, and 2018, and was canceled in 1995 because of the baseball strike.[29] The game was played in 2013 despite the Boston Marathon bombing because it had finished before the bombs went off.[30] From 1968 to 2006 the games 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.[31]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 David Olson, North Dakota first western state to have a Patriots' Day InForum, April 15, 2019. Retrieved November 30, 2020.
  2. ↑ Massachusetts Legal Holidays Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  3. ↑ Patriot's Day in the United States Timeanddate. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  4. ↑ Patriots' Day - 2020 Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  5. ↑ §683.14 Patriots' Day The 2020 Florida Statutes. Retrieved December 9, 2020.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Patriots' Day Becomes Official Statewide Holiday! (July 13, 2017). Retrieved November 27, 2017.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Gilbreth, Donna (1997). Fast Day. New Hampshire Almanac. New Hampshire State Library.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 McMillan, Susan, "Patriot's Day or Patriots' Day? Punctuation confusion continues", 2014-04-20.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 McMillan, Susan, "Patriot's Day or Patriots' Day? Punctuation confusion continues", April 20, 2014. Retrieved April 21, 2014.
  10. ↑ Brindley, Michael, "N.H.'s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Didn't Happen Without A Fight", New Hampshire Public Radio, 2013-08-27.
  11. ↑ Battle of Menotomy - First Blood, 1775 (in en-US) (2010-05-06).
  12. ↑ The Battle of Menotomy (in en-US) (2012-07-04).
  13. ↑ The Battle of Menotomy (in en-US) (2012-07-04).
  14. ↑ Battle of Menotomy - First Blood, 1775 (in en-US) (2010-05-06).
  15. ↑ The Battle of Menotomy (in en-US) (2012-07-04).
  16. ↑ The Battle of Menotomy (in en-US) (2012-07-04).
  17. ↑ Battle of Menotomy - First Blood, 1775 (in en-US) (2010-05-06).
  18. ↑ Battle of Menotomy - First Blood, 1775 (in en-US) (2010-05-06).
  19. ↑ The Battle of Menotomy (in en-US) (2012-07-04).
  20. ↑ Battle of Menotomy - First Blood, 1775 (in en-US) (2010-05-06).
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 The History of the Boston Marathon: A Perfect Way to Celebrate Patriot's Day. The Atlantic. Retrieved April 23, 2013.
  22. ↑ "Patriots Day Coming to Connecticut", Waterbury Republican-American, July 3, 2017. Retrieved July 4, 2017.
  23. ↑ "Patriots' Day 2018: What's open, what's closed, details on extended tax deadline, Boston Marathon, MBTA service and more", MassLive, 15 April 2018. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  24. ↑ Jason Russell House (in en-US) (2012-07-05).
  25. ↑ News | Town of Arlington.
  26. ↑ Who To Watch on Marathon Monday (April 17, 2015).
  27. ↑ Logan, Tim, "Boston Marathon postponed to September due to coronavirus", The Boston Globe, 2020-03-13.
  28. ↑ Golen, Jimmy (May 28, 2020). Boston Marathon canceled for 1st time in 124-year history.
  29. ↑ 1995. Boston Red Sox Box Scores. Baseball-reference.com. Retrieved October 14, 2012.
  30. ↑ MLB Scores, Standings, Box Scores for Monday, April 15, 2013.
  31. ↑ Patriots' Day game may start earlier. Boston Red Sox (June 19, 2012). Archived from the original on October 8, 2012. Retrieved October 14, 2012.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Galvin, John R. The Minute Men: The First Fight : Myths and Realities of the American Revolution. Brassey's, 1989. ISBN 978-0080367330
  • Kollen, Richard P. The Patriot Parson of Lexington, Massachusetts. The History Press, 2016. ISBN 978-1467135382
  • Varney, Geo. J. The Story of Patriots' Day: Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775. Forgotten Books, 2018. ISBN 978-1331064855

External links

All links retrieved

Holidays, Observances, and Celebrations in the United States of America
Family Christmas


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