This coming week both my countries have a birthday. First up, I get to celebrate my home and native land on Canada Day July 1. Then, it’s time to add a splash of blue to that red and white outfit in honor of the USA and July 4^th.

This makes for two big birthday parties in one week, and it’s a lot of fun. The national holiday is a perfect melding of what I love about birthdays with some patriotic pomp added in. There’s typically:

• Cake — cakes so huge that they can feed an entire town’s worth of people who come to the event.
• Singing — national anthems in particular in both countries, but for Canada Day I like to amp up the “CanCon” — check out Canadian Content such as Tragically Hip or Sloan or maybe the Classified rap anthem embedded below.
• Coming together — family and friends enjoying the opportunity to party together. Youppi! (That’s French for Yippee).

Photo credit: maf04 / Foter / CC BY-SA

Plus, national birthdays add another element I love — fireworks. Sparklers, too. But fireworks are probably the best part. I have many a fond memory of our friends and family gathering on the cul de sac at sunset on Canada Day for our fathers to blast off the fireworks all the neighbors had pitched in for. Fireworks connect us in much the same way as singing Happy Birthday does. We join in together to “ooh,” “aah,” clap and count the number of explosions — all while having a blast with friends and family.

I hope wherever you are reading this you enjoy your next national birthday with both patriotic pride and joy of being with the ones you love.