National Holiday Quotes

Thanksgiving is America's favourite holiday, and a brilliant piece of personal as well as patriotic calendrical invention.

When I was little I thought, isn't it nice that everybody celebrates on my birthday? Because it's July 4th.

I am going to take something I learned over in Israel. Their Independence Day is preceded the 24 hours before with Memorial Day, so it gives them a chance to serve and reflect and then celebrate. I am going to try to start that tradition here in America.

The Puritan attack on Christmas was only a minor expression of religious and social ideas which were revolutionary in their impact on the national life in general. Christmas was criticized because of its “Popish” antecedents and because as the chief national holiday it was especially associated with drinking, dancing, play acting, gambling, and other evils.

Though President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a national holiday in 1894, the occasion was first observed on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City.

I actually remember celebrating National Poetry Day at school; I remember having to write and read a load.

When every high school graduate can spell the word, 'inauguration,' let's put lampshades on our heads and listen to his speeches until Obama's voice gives out.

If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.

Houses of Congress have . . . requested me to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God.

Let's assume for the moment that the logic behind Presidents Day is actually sound for certain presidents. Why not have a separate holiday for Lincoln and one for Washington - as we used to do, before we became so concerned with the 'Every President Gets a Trophy' ethos?

The truth is the Super Bowl long ago became more than just a football game. It's part of our culture like turkey at Thanksgiving and lights at Christmas, and like those holidays beyond their meaning, a factor in our economy.

The Second Day of July 1776 will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.... It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shows, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires, and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Decoration Day is the most beautiful of our national holidays.... The grim cannon have turned into palm branches, and the shell and shrapnel into peach blossoms.

Thanksgiving was nothing more than a pilgrim-created obstacle in the way of Christmas; a dead bird in the street that forced a brief detour.

If you grew up in Boston, you actually grew up thinking that Patriots' Day is a major American holiday, sort of like the other Fourth of July.

While tributes to Americans who had lost their lives in battle had been held in a number of towns across the nation, one of the more well-known stories about the beginnings of Memorial Day is the story about General John Logan.

[Independence Day] was a sweet, sweet job, because it was one of those big surprises.

You see, here in America there's a reason why we celebrate the 4th of July and not April 15th because in America we celebrate our independence from the government, not our dependence on it.

You are the first President to whom the opportunity was ever offered constitutionally to inaugurate such a day. If you fail us now, you may be the last.

Grand National Holiday

If we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday at a time of presidential inaugurals, this is thanks to Ronald Reagan who created the holiday, and not to the Democratic Congress of the Carter years, which rejected it.

It will be celebrated... with pomp and parade... bonfires and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other.

As the grandson of Italian immigrants, maybe I am biased, but I think Christopher Columbus, the man who is rightfully credited with bringing European civilization to the Western Hemisphere, deserves the national holiday enacted by Congress in 1934.

There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.