Independence Day is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence at the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, and political speeches and ceremonies.

On the Capitol lawn in Washington, D.C., A Capitol Fourth, a free concert broadcast live by PBS, NPR and the American Forces Network, precedes the fireworks and attracts millions across the United States and the world, as well as attended by more than half a million people at the Capitol.

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

A journalist described the event as

A mix of patriotism …

(as the National Symphony Orchestra launched into Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture with accompaniment from an Army artillery squad, a spectacular fireworks display erupted over the Washington Monument.

There was something special about being in the nation’s capital on Independence Day, surrounded by a few hundred thousand of our fellow citizens)

and pop culture …

And the International Society for Krishna Consciousnes sang all night long

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama