Have you ever sat down to try to explain the 4th of July to someone who isn’t from America? 

Or tried to explain any American holiday to a non-American, for that matter?

It’s something I’ve become accustomed to in recent years, trying to tease out the nuances between Memorial Day and Veterans Day and explaining why it is that most of us eat turkeys on Thanksgiving. 

Although most of my readers know me as “the Democrat lady” (a phrase I’ve heard more than a few times over the years shouted out at me as I’ve walked by or murmured in the crowd) and a local family and wedding photographer, I wear yet another hat as a marketer for an Australian-based teaching resource company. 

Teach Starter makes resources for teachers in both Australia and the US (with American teachers on staff to create the bulk of materials that show up in American classrooms), and a fair number of my colleagues live and work in Australia. 

While I’ve had a crash course in Australian life in the past few years, my co-workers have revealed they know far more about the US than the average American knows about Australia thanks to the sheer number of American movies, TV shows, video games and other media that hops across the Pacific. 

And yet it’s often the “facts” they’ve picked up from movies that I find myself trying to explain aren’t quite on target. 

In fact, no, we don’t all have a closet full of red, white and blue shorts and eagle t-shirts, and only a handful of us end up in the ER on July 4th with a few fingers in a cooler ... although we all wish it were none.

Yes, we eat a lot of hot dogs, and we even sit around watching a bunch of people compete to be the person who gorges themselves on a stick of meat on our national day. Hey, you all know us for our big portions in America, so we figured we might as well go all in. 

No, we haven’t figured out “good” beer yet, but we make up for it with sheer quantity consumed on the 4th. 

Yes, we all have that same Old Navy shirt with the flag on it, and we all bought it on sale on July 5th one year. 

Yes, people will blow things up for about a week prior and a week after the big day, whether their neighbors have to go to work the next day or not. 

Beyond the general confusion over what it is we do and do not do to celebrate our nation’s birthday, I’ve learned that it’s what we learn in elementary school about our country and the patriotism baked into the curriculum that may be the most confounding for my colleagues from down under. 

There’s utter surprise that we really do say a pledge of allegiance to the flag on a daily basis — that’s not just something added to the movies for effect. 

I’ve likewise shocked my colleagues in knowing both the name of the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence and the person who (allegedly) sewed our nation’s first flag.

And yet, for all the confusion and raised eyebrows, the surprise may be my own in realizing just how fascinated these non-Americans are by what it is we do on our nation’s biggest holiday. 

“Send us pictures of your festivities,” one colleague begged me. 

That’s certainly something this Democrat lady can do!