1776年7月4日是美国大陆会议正式通过《独立宣言》的日子。庆祝活动很快就以游行、公开宣读等活动拉开序幕。
Fighting in the nation's war for independence had already begun.
美国独立战争早已经打响。
But it was not until 1870 that the U.S. Congress passed a law to set July 4th as the national observance of Independence Day. The law was updated in 1938 and again in 1941.
但是直到1870年，美国国会才通过一项法律，将7月4日定为全国性的独立日。该法律于1938年和1941年再次修订。
Recently, another holiday to mark American independence was established by the U.S. Congress. The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act observes the end of slavery in the United States. The U.S. now officially observes 11 yearly holidays.
最近，美国国会又设立了另一个纪念美国独立的节日。《黑奴解放日法案》庆祝美国奴隶制的结束。现在美国每年正式庆祝11个节日。
State and local gatherings for Independence Day and other holidays are as old as the country itself.
庆祝独立日等节日的州和地方集会跟美国自身一样古老。
The Pulitzer Prize winning historian Eric Phoner said national holidays were a way to unify the nation after the Civil War. "The Civil War consolidated national power in all sorts of ways, and national holidays are an illustration of that," he said.
获得普利策奖的历史学家埃里克·福勒表示，全国性节日是美国内战后团结全国的一种方式。他说：“内战以各种方式巩固了国家权力，全国性节日就是一个例证。”
Some observers point out that Independence Day has been caught up in the country's divisions from a very early time. In the 1780s and 1790s, two political sides argued over who should get credit for writing the Declaration of Independence. The document famously declares that "...all men are created equal."
一些观察人士指出，独立日很早就被卷入到该国的分歧当中。在18世纪八九十年代，两个政治派别争论谁应该因撰写独立宣言而受到赞扬。该文件著名地提出了“人人生而平等。”
The Democratic Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson thought that he should get the credit while supporters of a strong central government, the Federalists, said others helped too.
以托马斯·杰斐逊为首的民主共和党认为他应该得到赞扬，而支持建立一个强大中央政府的联邦党人则表示其他人也提供了帮助。
In the years before the Civil War, Black Americans were often not included in official July 4 events. Instead, they would celebrate on July 5. The Black writer Frederick Douglass gave his well-known speech, What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July, on July 5, 1852, at an anti-slavery gathering New York.
在内战前几年，美国黑人通常不参加7月4日的官方活动。相反，他们会在7月5日庆祝。黑人作家弗雷德里克·道格拉斯于1852年7月5日在纽约的一次反奴隶制聚会上发表了《独立日对奴隶来说意味着什么？》的著名演讲。
There is discussion in the U.S. about whether it is right to observe July 4 as Independence Day. The debates involve questions about the country's beginnings and the ideas expressed in the Declaration of Independence.
美国有人在讨论将7月4日定为独立日是否正确。这场辩论涉及到了跟美国起源以及《独立宣言》中所表达思想有关的问题。
Some say the meaning of July 4 continues to change over time. They note that Franklin Roosevelt and George W. Bush were among the presidents who honored the military in Independence Day speeches.
有人说7月4日的含义随着时间的推移而不断变化。他们指出，富兰克林·罗斯福和小布什位居在独立日演讲中向军队致敬的总统的行列。
Last year, former President Donald Trump gave a speech at Mount Rushmore in the state of South Dakota. At the time, the coronavirus health crisis was intensifying but there also were protests across the country.
去年，前总统川普在南达科他州的拉什莫尔山发表了演讲。当时新冠病毒健康危机正在加剧，但是全国各地也出现了抗议活动。
The Mount Rushmore memorial includes huge sculptures of the faces of four American presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. Trump praised those leaders and criticized people who would damage or deface statues representing the nation's founders.
拉什莫尔山纪念碑包含了四位美国总统的巨大面部雕塑，他们分别是乔治·华盛顿、托马斯·杰斐逊、亚伯拉罕·林肯和西奥多·罗斯福。川普赞扬了这些领导人，并批评那些破坏和污损代表国家缔造者的雕像的人士。
At the time, then presidential candidate Joe Biden released a video. In it, he said that the country had not yet lived up to the promise of equality. He noted that Jefferson was a slaveholder.
这次，现任总统乔·拜登发布了一段视频。他在视频中表示，美国尚未兑现平等的承诺。他指出杰斐逊就是一名奴隶主。
"America is no fairy tale," Biden said. It struggles with two forces, he said: "The idea that all men and women — all people — are created equal and the racism that has torn us apart."
拜登表示：“美国不是童话故事。”它与两股力量作斗争，他说：“我们的理念是人人生而平等，而种族主义让我们四分五裂。”
I'm Mario Ritter Jr.
我是小马里奥·里特。(51VOA.COM原创翻译，请勿转载，违者必究！)