OPINION — “Happy July 4th!” We say this same greeting year after year to celebrate Independence Day. However, this year we say it in a whole different way — with the greatest joy ever and extreme pride because it is America’s 250th birthday.
On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Second Continental Congress to officially make the United States of America its own country.
For easy reading, we will call July 4 this year America 250. However, for more advanced enjoyment, we are celebrating our semiquincentennial, or more easily said in parts, semi-quin-centennial (half of 500 years). Here comes another name for this wonderful holiday, sestercentennial, divided into parts as sester-centennial (two and a half centuries). Sester is from Latin meaning “two and a half.”