Last week I used the holiday of Eid a-Adha to atone for shortcomings in my column caused by the fact that I am not Muslim. This week I want to continue my atonement tour to remind you dear readers that I am also not Black.

Last week on Wednesday, June 19, African-Americans celebrated Juneteenth. All of America should have been celebrating with them. I confess that until this year I lumped Juneteenth with Kwanzaa as somewhat artificial Black-identity holidays. I will consider the meaning of Kwanzaa at another time, but I can say without a doubt that I was wrong about Juneteenth, which I will be trying to find a way to celebrate from now on.

Juneteenth is a holiday that began and struck roots in Black communities in Texas. It celebrated the day of June 19, 1865 as the day when Gen. Gordon Granger of the U.S. Army announced in Galveston, Texas, that slavery was over. Of course, the Emancipation Proclamation had been signed two years earlier but it only applied to areas controlled by the U.S. Army and Confederate forces in Texas, which was a part of the Confederacy, did not surrender until June 2, 1865 – hence, Juneteenth. Granger wrote:

“The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.”

Of course, declaring freedom and achieving freedom are two very different things and the struggle to purge the vestiges of slavery would take, and will take, generations to achieve. In fact, Granger’s proclamation occurred two months after Lincoln had been assassinated, and Juneteenth did not become an official state holiday in Texas until 1980.

The simple reason that Juneteenth ought to have wider appeal was brought home to me in a single stunning passage in a wonderful 2020 article in the New Yorker written by Annette Gordon-Reed. (“ Growing Up with Juneteenth: How a Texan holiday became a national tradition.”– June 19, 2020

Gordon-Reed wrote:

“Today, there is a strong movement to make Juneteenth a national holiday. If one thinks about it, it is staggering that there is no date commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.”

I am 77 and I am embarrassed and humbled that I never realized that fact until now. The Fourth of July comes closest but it celebrates America’s freedom from England not its freedom from slavery. Every great culture or faith can be judged by what it chooses to celebrate and then by giving the celebration a date in the sacred calendar. Passover is the Jewish holiday celebrating the end of slavery in Egypt and it has a date that calls that exodus from the house of bondage into memory and thankfulness every year. Easter is the Christian holiday that celebrates the salvation from the original sin of the world and the saving sacrificial crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. That salvation has a date and it is celebrated every year as part of the Christian story. The two great Muslim feasts of Eid al-fitr and eid al-Adha celebrate the journey of Mohammad into freedom for al-Islam. They have dates on a lunar calendar and over 2 million Muslims just completed the ritual reenactment of Mohammad’s pilgrimage. Wesak is the birthdate of the Buddha and Buddhists celebrate that birth and the path to enlightenment (nirvana) that the Buddha taught. Wesak has a date.

So how can it be that there is no holiday celebrating the end of slavery in America? Martin Luther King Day celebrates him and his sacred mission to make freedom real for all Americans, but it does not commemorate and it does not celebrate the first and most bloody and heroic decision of America to exclude and transcend slavery. Juneteenth does that and the movement to make it a national holiday now includes me.

I have no idea what rituals ought to accompany the national celebration of Juneteenth but time will tell. Gordon-Reed wrote that the rituals she remembered most about celebrating Juneteenth as a child in Texas included drinking red pop and eating barbecued goat.

Count me in on the red pop.

Count me out on the goat.

Happy Juneteenth

Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.