Happy Birthday, America!
Posted on Jun 30, 2026 by Shari Van Baale
This week is America’s 250th birthday. The United States Semiquincentennial, also called the sestercentennial (two and a half centuries), or the Quarter Millennium, will be the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. There are celebrations throughout the country in big cities and small towns. Finding a place to celebrate won’t be a problem. Deciding where and how to celebrate might be.
I am celebrating by heading back to my husband’s hometown. We have not been there for the holiday together for a few years. Being small-town Iowa, the Fourth of July is celebrated each year with a two-hour parade and extravaganza afterward in the city’s downtown “square,” complete with food trucks, games, and a downtown market.
We used to visit during the Fourth of July weekend more often. My mother-in-law organized a family reunion/picnic that we would attend annually, being reunited with my husband’s family each year with lots of conversation, laughs, and all kinds of food.
My mother-in-law passed away recently. There will be no picnic this year. In fact, there hasn’t been one for a few years. Still, we plan to go visit my father-in-law and watch the parade she always enjoyed each year. It seems like a great way to honor her memory by doing one of the things she loved.
We are truly blessed to live in a country where we are free. As the Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
However you choose to celebrate the semiquincentennial, I hope you spend some time reflecting on the liberties we were given 250 years ago.
Shari Van Baale
Salem Communications Coordinator