Celebrating the 4th July

When it comes to celebrating Independence, nobody in the world does it like the Americans; over 320 million people will be celebrating independence from British rule.

As 87% of Americans own barbecues, a lot of outdoor cooking will be done; around 150,000,000 hot-dogs will be consumed and over 700 million pounds of chicken.

41 million people will visits friends and family whilst approximately $25 million will be spent on fireworks in the states where fireworks are permitted.

A few little known facts:

• The Declaration of independence wasn't signed until August 2nd with several delegates signing at a later date, two delegates, John Dickinson and Robert Livingstone didn't sign at all.

• The original National bird of America was not the bald eagle but the turkey.

• In the Movie “National Treasure” with Nicholas Cage, the Actor plays a character who believes the document holds a secret invisible treasure map back on the reverse. This is of course fiction but the document does have a mysterious inscription written on the back of the manuscript upside down at the bottom of the page are the words “original declaration of independence 4th July 1776”, no one knows who wrote this or when, it is assumed it was written as a label for the first run off the press. The movie leads us to believe (as do most Americans) there is only one original document, but in truth there are a staggering 26.

• In 1989 a Philadelphia man paid $4 for an old picture frame, when he opened up the frame he found one of the few original prints of the declaration which he sold in 2000 for a massive 8.1 million dollars.

Whilst most Americans will be doing the whole patriotic thing a few others will be celebrating in their own way.

Down at Z-Burger In the nation’s capital, they will be embracing the American spirit of gluttony and are looking for big eaters to take part in their annual challenge, there are cash prizes of $1000, $750, & $500 with the same value in burger tokens for 1st 2nd & 3rd for the most burgers eaten.

For those with a penchant for black lipstick rather than red white and blue face paint, the Freaks United Festival, an annual gathering of Goths will be taking part at Ziegfeld’s down by the Nationals Park.

While others will be spending ten hours running through the city with “Goruck’s” (ruck sack) full of house bricks on their backs, all sponsorship will go towards the “Green Beret foundation”. If anyone is attending all three of the above festivities, you my friend must be EPIC.

If you are having a barbecue at home to celebrate with friends and family from the USA or indeed, just needed an excuse to have a party with fireworks, we have the biggest range of consumer fireworks in the UK in our bespoke showroom just off Junction 36 of the M1, heading Sheffield North. With prices starting from just a couple of pounds into the thousands, we have something for every budget and taste.