Professor Ian Ayres Aims to Foster Connection and Discourse for America’s Birthday with Website
In anticipation of the country’s 250th birthday, Oscar M. Ruebhausen Professor Ian Ayres ’86 created a special website that honors the Fourth of July as well as other major American holidays in the hopes that it will encourage civil yet lively conversations about “what it means to be American.”
The site, USHolidays.org, is a free, nonpartisan resource that “helps families and friends bring meaning, ritual, and reflection to America's holidays,” according to Ayres, offering a short history of each holiday, notable readings, trivia challenges, songs with lyrics and chords, holiday-specific recipes, suggested exercise workouts, and discussion questions appropriate for all ages.
Ayres was inspired to create the website by their own family’s tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence every Fourth of July.
“Like generations of Americans before us, we would gather in a circle at a picnic table and began reading the unforgettable words, ‘When in the Course of human events…’ — each person reading a sentence and then passing a copy of the Declaration of Independence around, from parent to child and back again,” said Ayres.
Ayres said the process of creating the website gave them a greater understanding of American holidays and their meaning.
“I was surprised to learn that the meaning of just about every holiday — everything from Thanksgiving to Labor Day — has been deeply contested, and that our celebrations and observances have been ways for us to come to evolving beliefs not only about what these days mean, but what it means to be an American,” said Ayres.
In addition to being a tool for igniting conversation, Ayres invites users to interact with the website by answering holiday-related trivia questions and sharing their own holiday traditions — and those who share their Fourth of July traditions will be entered to win a prize of a video drone.
“Our country finds itself at a time of great political division, when even trust in basic institutions of democracy has eroded,” said Ayres. “I hope the website might play a small role in helping people with different beliefs reaffirm their appreciation for the foundations and institutions they share.”
