July 4 is the best holiday (July 4)

I have a theory that says a person’s favorite holiday is a function of where they live and what the best season is in that locale. For example, when I lived in Atlanta, Halloween was my favorite holiday. I always thought it was great because Halloween is such a fun holiday both for kids and adults, a holiday where you’re either exchanging reese’s peanut butter cups if you’re a little kid showing up to a front door, or you’re swapping mini bottles of fireball at a mildly inappropriate adult costume party.

When we moved to Seattle, Megan said something about July 4th being her favorite holiday and I looked at her like she’d just spoken some cruel blasphemy. “How DARE you not think Halloween is the best!” I said back to her. “You’ll see” she just casually said.

7 years later and I finally get it. It’s 9am on July 4th and it’s sunny and 65 degrees. Today’s high will be around 75, as it usually is as we formally transition from WinSpring to Actual Summer. July 4th here isn’t a celebration of our nation’s independence. It’s a celebration of our escape from the doom and gloom of chilly weather and omnipresent gloomy skies. And I see now that Halloween in Atlanta wasn’t so much about costumes, candy, and cinnamon flavored whiskey (though all those are rad too). It was a celebration of the end of scorched earth heat waves, torrential downpours, and flash floods. The weather drives what your favorite holiday is.

Happy fourth and happy good weather for the next few months to my fellow PNW’ers!