Philly’s new Independence holiday gets to the heart of America

Philadelphia celebrated a new holiday called Red, White, & Blue To-Do on Tuesday, exactly 248 years after one of the country’s founding fathers predicted it.

Further proof to never give up on your American dream, folks, even in death.

When the Second Continental Congress voted in Philadelphia to adopt a resolution for independence from Great Britain on July 2, 1776, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, that he believed the day would be celebrated by generations to come.

“It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more,” he wrote.

Obviously, Adams was wrong (but he was from Boston, so don’t be too hard on him).

It was July 4, when Congress approved the Declaration of Independence, that became the day we celebrate the founding of our country.

But as the Historic District Partners — a coalition of more than 30 institutions, museums, and attractions — looked toward the city’s U.S. semiquincentennial celebrations in 2026 and sought opportunities to create new events, they remembered Adams’ words and decided to finally heed his call (except for the gun and bonfire bits, of course).

Amy Needle, president and CEO of Historic Philadelphia, Inc., said the partners wanted to start celebrating Red, White, & Blue To-Do now so it can grow and be perfected prior to the nation’s 250th anniversary.

“We want it to get bigger and bigger over the next several years,” she said. “Hopefully it becomes a legacy event and July 2 is a time people know there will be lots of fun and exciting things to do in Philadelphia.”

“Lots” may be an understatement. By my count, more than 25 events were held throughout the district on Tuesday. There were activities for kids, like an interactive puppet show about the Declaration of Independence going missing at the 18th Century Garden, and those that spanned generations, like an exhibit about the science and history of spies during the Revolutionary War at the Arch Street Meeting House.

At every stop was a “decoration station” with free beads, leis, and sunglasses so people could make sure they were “festooned in red, white, and blue,” Needle said. On Fourth Street, attendees were treated to free water ice, hot dogs, french fries, face painting, and caricature drawings.

The main event was the Pomp & Parade on Independence Mall, which featured floats on classic red Radio Flyer Wagons, local performance groups, and a John Adams reenactor.

Festivities went into the evening with musical performances, a reading and reenactment of Frederick Douglass’ “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” at the African American Museum, a screening of the movie musical 1776 at the American Philosophical Society, and restaurants specials throughout Old City.

I began my day at a children’s naturalization ceremony at the Betsy Ross House where I told myself I wouldn’t cry and then totally did. The dozen new citizens, all under 14, hailed from Algeria, the Dominican Republic, Georgia, Haiti, Jamaica, and Nigeria.

As they sat on a small stage under a big American flag, I couldn’t help but think of all they’d already gone through to be here and, as Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said during his remarks, how their “unique backgrounds and experiences will enrich our society.”

Sometimes it seems like hope in the United States can be hard to come by these days, but I saw it in abundance in the eyes of those kids and in the beaming eyes of their parents.

Wassila Kherbouche, whose daughter Sara Hadouda, 12, and son, Aymane Hadouda, 10, became citizens - nearly seven years after their family arrived here from Algeria - said she came to Philly to give her children a better life.

“I keep telling them they have good opportunities here to be whatever they want,” she told me.

The new citizens were invited to march in the Pomp & Parade along Independence Mall, which was a beautiful display of the rich tapestry of this city and country.

Led by the Native Nations Dance Theater, the parade featured groups like the Central York Middle School Fife and Drum Corps dressed in full colonial garb, members of Gente de Venezuela Philly in traditional clothing waving U.S. and Venezuelan flags, and the white-gloved step team from Jenks Academy for the Arts and Sciences.

Participants wished spectators a “Happy July 2nd!” and homemade floats included one of a Liberty Bell made with hemlock pine cones and flax and onion seeds.

The beating heart of the parade was the West Powelton Drum Line. One of my favorite moments came at the end, when I saw a little girl who’d marched with Gente de Venezuela jump with unbridled glee as she watched the drum line dancers in awe.

After the parade, I popped into Carpenters’ Hall where the Franklin Institute was holding science demonstrations and children worked together to build a LEGO city, and then went to the Museum of the American Revolution, where staffers from Philadelphia250 were engaging people with the city’s plans for the semiquincentennial.

Over in the Signers Garden, I pieced together a puzzle of the Declaration of Independence, took a quiz to test my knowledge of the country’s founding documents, and watched a colonial reenactor muster more than a dozen kids who were ready to join the Continental Army.

Given it was a Tuesday and the first year for the event, crowds were relatively light, but I’m hopeful attendance will grow in the coming years because I think what’s been created with this new holiday is something truly special.

Far too often, it seems like the American flag and even the word America itself have become politicized, but Red, White, & Blue To-Do felt like an event that reclaimed the idea of America away from politicians and back to we, the people

I felt joy and hope, in our city and our country, in the people who make it unique and strong, and in the concepts and ideals on which it was founded.

Perhaps, as John Adams ended his letter to Abigail, “You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not.

“I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States,” Adams wrote. “Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.”