YOUR independence/ (insert your country name here) day!

What do you do to celebrate either independence or the birth of your country? Do you even have such a day? (Canada Day, Australia Day, ETC)

Also what day of the year is it?

Are there special rituals/celebration that go on?

Here in the USA it's the 4th which really is like a second birthday for me. Now, normally loud noises startle me terribly (Look up hyperacusis someday) but when it comes to FIREWORKS, the louder the better. Also, it's a time for food, friends, family, and (sometimes) swimming or long walks...  

For a couple years when I was in the orchestra we'd play concerts for vets or the public and watching their eyes glow, glisten, tear-up.... was so worth it. Children's eyes would just intensify...  All waiting for the dropping of the sun. THAT'S when the magic began. 

A line in our national anthem reads "And the rocket's red glare, the bombs busting in air gave proof thru the night that our flag was still there"

Fireworks, man. :B  And lots of them!  We live about 15 mines away from Disneyland and we can still hear them. On the 4th.... we van hear thunderous roars in the skies.  It's so eerie!  Almost other-worldly...  I love it all so much.

What do you personally do and why is it special to you? (By the way, no two people are the same so don't be afraid to share! :D )

One more thing: No bashing-flaming others for contradictions/rivalries. I don't care if X country did Y to Z country or why. Not interested. Leave it for Facebook.

Alright.... PAYCE!

I think the closest thing we have to that in Britain is Guy Fawkes night, also known as Bonfire night. People used to burn effigies of Guy Fawkes to celebrate his failed plot to blow up parliament. I'm not sure if many people even know why they're celebrating it any more. It's just become an excuse to set off fire works and burn things; which I'm not against.

17 August is my country, Indonesia independence day. We held flag ceremony every year and although some school do this every monday, this flag ceremony is special because the indonesia proclamation script is read. It make me feel free.

Oh, in national monument, they played the voice recording of Soekarno, which is our first president reading proclamation script.

I miss those ceremony days. I'm already graduated from high school and there's no flag ceremony for college students xD

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Belgium's national holiday is 21 July (the day our first king took the oath), Flanders's holiday is 11 July (celebrating our victory on the French), Wallonia's holiday is apparantely 27 September (celebrating the victory of the Belgian patriots on the government troops) and the East Cantons's holiday is on 15 November (also the day of Belgium's King's Feast).

Most people just enjoy their day off doing nothing really. There's a military parade in the capital on the national holiday, as well as several folk games and (folk) dancing/singing. I can't speak for the last two days, as I'm not part of that region, but nobody really celebrates 11 July, except the Flemish nationalists. 

We are nothing if not a divided country :p