Celebrate Patriots’ Day with me!
April is a month with many reasons to celebrate, whether it’s a religious holiday, April Fools’ Day, or simply the blooming of daffodils. For a Boston native like myself, the third Monday of April always meant Patriots’ Day, a day off from school that was spent happily watching an 11am Red Sox game and the Boston Marathon.
Not to be confused with the Patriot Day that arose after September 11, 2001, Patriots’ Day commemorates the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord, considered the first volleys in the Revolutionary War after years of unrest between Britain and the colonists.
And why is the Boston Marathon held on that day? The name itself evokes a battle, coming as it does from the Battle of Marathon in ancient Greece. After the modern Olympics was revived in Greece in 1896, members of the Boston Athletic Association were inspired to organize a hometown version of the race. They scheduled it for April 19, 1897, which had been made a holiday just a few years before. Much later, in 1969, Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts was changed to the third Monday of April, thus providing the 3-day weekend I so fondly remember.
Patriots’ Day is observed in six states. As one might expect, it’s on the holiday calendars of the New England states of Massachusetts, Maine, and Connecticut. But it’s also marked in Wisconsin, Florida, and most recently, North Dakota!
One more point of interest: Paul Revere’s “midnight ride” on the eve of April 19, which was enshrined in the famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, wasn’t even mentioned in obituaries written at the time the patriot died in 1818.
Here are some titles to help you celebrate the third Monday in April:
The British are Coming: The War for America, Lexington to Princeton, 1775-1777 by Rick Atkinson
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author gives stirring new life to the drama of our country’s war for independence.
The Times That Try Men's Souls: The Adams, the Quincys, and the Battle for Loyalty in the American Revolution by Joyce Lee Malcolm
New Book! The author traces the origins and experience of division during the American Revolution—the political disagreements, intolerance, intimidation and mob violence - revealing the hidden cost of the war to families and dear friends split along party lines.
Paul Revere’s Ride by David Hackett Fischer
One of the foremost American historians offers the first serious look at the events of the night of April 18, 1775--what led up to it, what really happened, and what followed--uncovering a truth far more remarkable than the myths of tradition.
Women Waging War in the American Revolution (Conference) (2019 : Philadelphia, Pa.)
Essays in this collection examine the impact of Revolutionary-era women on the outcomes of the war and its subsequent narrative tradition, from popular perception to its academic treatment.
Freedom's Ghost: A Mystery of the American Revolution by Eliot Pattison
Fiction. After narrowly avoiding death in London at the hands of the king's secret agents, Duncan McCallum returns to colonial America only to discover that his troubles have followed him across the Atlantic
In the Founders' Footsteps: Landmarks of the American Revolution by Adam Van Doren
Discover the taverns, meeting houses, battlefields, forts, monuments, and homes whose rich heritage all combine to define our country--the places where daring people forged a revolution.
First Martyr of Liberty: Crispus Attucks in American Memory by Mitchell A. Kachun
Explores how Crispus Attucks's death in the 1770 Boston Massacre, often cited as the first man to die in the American Revolution, led to his achieving mythic significance in African Americans' struggle to incorporate their experiences and heroes into the mainstream of the American historical narrative.
This docudrama follows Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis and fictional BPD Sergeant Tommy Saunders in the time surrounding the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing.
Her Fearless Run: Kathrine Switzer's Historic Boston Marathon by Kim Chaffee
This narrative biography follows Switzer from running laps as a girl in her backyard to her becoming the first woman to run the Boston Marathon with official race numbers in 1967. Her inspirational true story is for anyone willing to challenge the rules.
And as a fan, I couldn’t resist:
If These Walls Could Talk: Boston Red Sox Stories from the Boston Red Sox Dugout, Locker Room, and Press Box by Jerry Remy
The Boston Red Sox are one of the most iconic teams in Major League Baseball, with nine World Series championships and countless greats who have donned the Sox uniform. The late former player and longtime broadcaster provides insight into the team's inner sanctum as only he can.
Happy Patriots’ Day!
- by Kathleen, Ewing Branch
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