So Out, It's In: Evacuation Day

I love holidays. Any excuse to sleep in, stay home, and overeat is fine by me. So naturally, November and December are my kind of months--we've got two days to celebrate Thanksgiving, then mid-December comes my birthday, then of course the mini-vacation that is Christmas, and who can forget New Year's. But are we missing something? Could we possibly squeeze in one more holiday? If George Washington was still around, I think he'd raise a glass to commemorating November 25th. And if it's good enough for GW, it's good enough for me.

This Tuesday, November 25th marks the 225th anniversary of Evacuation Day, which is so out it's in. What's Evacuation Day? Good question, and thank you for asking.

Evacuation Day marks the date in 1783 when the last remnant of British authority in the United States left New York. New York City at the time had been under British command since kicking the Continentals out in 1776 after the Battle of Fort Washington-- Manhattan was the Brits' center of political and military presence in North America. The city had seen two devastating fires, tens of thousands of deaths, and general ruinous squalor until London had had enough. The last major battle of the American Revolution had been at Yorktown two years prior, and it was time to end it all for good. London ordered the British forces in New York to evacuate and transfer power back to the Rebels, thus assigning November 25th, 1783 as the permanent date to the end of the war.

Up until World War I (and the warming of the British and American relationship) Evacuation Day had been celebrated each year with the merriment and adult beverages that usually accompany any victory party. Men competed at Battery Park to climb up a greased pole and tear down the Union Jack, which happened on the first Evacuation Day as the British forces sailed away, and the 100th anniversary in 1883 was said to be one of the greatest civic events ever in New York City.

This Evacuation Day, however, might require extra pause. Not only because it's the 225th (we all love when anniversaries end in 0 or 5) but because America is again witness to an evacuation. Bush has occupied our White House for the last eight years, and he's preparing to retreat. Just as there were in November 1783, revelers partied in the streets of New York City in 2008 when it was announced that Blue had defeated Red. And then as it is now, a new regime is poised to take over, a change is coming, and the war will (hopefully) be ended. And then as it is now, there is hope that America will be rebuilt once the evacuation is complete.

So if you're so inclined this Tuesday, you can retrace Washington's march from Washington Heights (get it?) to Battery Park, stopping along the way at Blue Bell Tavern (181st St and Broadway) and Fraunces Tavern (Pearl and Broad) for a frosty mug or two, just as GW himself had done on November 25th and December 4th, respectively. Toast to evacuations complete and evacuations pending. Bonus points if you wear man-tights.

Follow Lindsay Mannering on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LindsayVirginia

Comments

[mileage]

So interesting. In Boston, Evacuation Day (March 17th) is alive and well with schools and local governments shutting down and serving largely as an excuse to make St. Patrick's Day an "official" holiday and a raucous one at that.

Yet it wasn't celebrated until 1901, just as the New York version (commemorating a more brutal and destructive occupation that lasted far longer than Boston's) was apparently dying out. It is said that anti-Irish sentiment in Boston throughout the late 19th Century didn't want to create a holiday that could be construed as celebrating St. Patrick. When I grew up in Boston in the 1970's, we all thought "evacuation" was something related to the Saint, and not the Revolution. This is the first time I ever heard of the holiday outside Massachusetts, and I've lived in NYC for 16 ears.

[BlackYowe]

I was thinking you meant as in GWB evacuating the whitehouse so we could all celebrate cleaning house. Now that one is worth downing a few and sleeping in! I personally will be celebrating this event in January with great gusto! Bush is pretty much a Palin Turkey already never mind a lame duck! The migration back to Texas will thrill millions world wide!

[larry278]

The medical profession has another meaning for evacuation. It means what W, Cheney & neo-cons have been doing upon the Constitution, human rights & the world since 1/20/01.

[FatherWolf]

Sounds like the coming Evacuation Day in Iraq.