How is American Independence Day celebrated in other countries, and by who?

Does anyone else do Thanksgiving?

Canada’s Thanksgiving Day is the 2nd Monday in October.

So you’re saying they set off fireworks on the weekend? (lunes, martes, miercoles, jueves, viernes, sabado, domingo)

I have been abroad for 12 of the past 13 Fourths of July, and I have never celebrated it. Except I went to the 4th of July party at the US Ambassador’s house in Mexico City in 2000, but it was on the 7th. There were red, white, blue(ish) flowers and a mariachi band. I was pretty bored and tried to take full advantage of the free, high-quality tequila.

I was in Venice, Italy, last summer on the 4th of July, and there was a fireworks display. Being the imperialist pig I am, I assumed it was for the benefit of the hordes of Yank tourists in town, but I could be mistaken.

I have spent two Independence Days in Italy, Florence to be exact. I was surprised, and touched, that several Italians (people at work, sales clerks, waiters, etc) greeted me by saying “Happy Independence Day” in the same way that you might say “Happy Birthday.” I thought this was very sweet, although I wasn’t quite sure how to respond, seeing as it’s not usually the type of holiday where you wish someone a good one and I felt funny taking any credit for the American Revolution.

The American Consulate in Florence has a party which is pretty much open to everyone, although I think that for security reasons, you’re supposed to RSVP in advance. Mostly Americans who work or live in Florence attend, as well as Italians who work for companies that do a lot of business in the US, or Italians who work for Italian divisions of American corporations (Alitalia, Fiat, McDonalds Italia, etc). Americans on vacation in Florence are welcome as well, however my impression is that most tourists with a limited time in Florence are more concerned with fitting in as much Florentine stuff as possible and not too focused on the 4th of July. It’s a very nice party and everyone has a good time and a lot of networking goes on. The food is pretty much all Italian – why would you ever pass up excellent Tuscan food? Oh, now that I think about it, they did serve this apple pie-ish pastry with vanilla gellato for dessert, and it is gosh darn delicious.

There is a quite large U.S. Independence Day celebration in Geneva, Switzerland. IIRC, they billed it as the “biggest Fourth of July party outside of the USA”. The organizers claimed attendance in excess of 50,000, which is a good number for a city of about 300,000. The US Consulate plus other expat groups there help with the organization. There is a carnival, food booths with US style, plus other “ethnic” (non-Swiss) foods, bands, parachutists, balloons, etc. It was a nice party. And of course a decent fireworks display at the end to top it off. It didn’t rival Fete de Geneve, but it was a solid good time.