China and the United States have at least one thing in common, a holiday that celebrates the founding of a country.
For the United States, that day is July 4. History.com says, “On July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later on (July 4th) delegates from the 13 (British) colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence, a historic document drafted by Thomas Jefferson.”
Of course, the United States would end up fighting its war for independence with the British Empire from 1775 – 1783. A war that lasted eight years until the country was really independent. During this conflict, the United States lost an estimated 25,000 – 70,000 killed vs 78,200 British, German and Loyalist troops that lost their lives.
China, on the other hand, waited until after the civil war to celebrate, and it was a long wait from 1927 – 1949, twenty-two years if we do not count the so-called time-out to fight World War II from 1937 – 1945. Some eight million Chinese were killed during a Civil War that was complicated by the Japanese invasion of China that killed an additional twenty-million Chinese.
Imagine what it must have been like to be fighting a Civil War and then getting invaded by another country at the same time.
In China, “National Day holiday is fixed at October 1–7 with adjacent weekend days being mandatory workdays to make up for lost time. This period is also called ‘golden week’ because of the biggest week for tourism in China, when people have a week off to reunite with families and take trips.”
China Highlights.com reports, “Due to preparations for the celebration of China’s 70th Anniversary, many top attractions in Beijing will be closed for a certain period in 2019.” Click the link in this paragraph to discover those facts.
The History of China’s National Day
After the Civil War ended, the People’s Republic of China was established, and an official victory celebration and ceremony was held in Tiananmen Square on October 1, 1949.
The South China Morning Post reported, “Twice a year China sees a mass migration of its citizens as it celebrates Golden Week. … In 1999, an estimated 28-million people travelled for the first Golden Week. In October 2017, 705-million people travelled around China and spent 583.6-billion yuan (US$85 billion).”
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine, Crazy is Normal, Running with the Enemy, and The Redemption of Don Juan Casanova.
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse 
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