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July 4th: Alice and Tom Sawyer Day

Lewis Carroll and Mark Twain remain two of the most influential figures in shaping children's imaginations

Jul 4, 2024 08:22 256

Today is July 4th - Alice Day. It is in this “golden July afternoon“ the writer Lewis Carroll /real name Charles Latwidge Dodgson/ and the Liddell family were walking. This becomes the starting point for the creation of one of the most amazing texts in English literature. "Alice in Wonderland" was published for the first time in 1865. Fantasy, symbolism, mathematics and language games, longing for childhood and love for absurd jokes are interwoven in it. The complex, focused text has been scattered in quotations and film adaptations and has long become part of the world's pop culture.

Every year on the 4th of July, events are held across the United States dedicated to the literary hero Tom Sawyer. National Tom Sawyer Days are held in Hannibal, Missouri. Hannibal is the hometown of Mark Twain: it served as a prototype for the fictional city of St. Petersburg, in which Twain settled Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, wrote many novels, short stories and short stories, but is best known for “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” the sequel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn“. Tom and Huck appear in two other lesser-known novels, "Tom Sawyer Abroad" and "Tom Sawyer the Detective".

Every year the Hannibal Festival attracts many tourists from all over the country.

The program usually includes a large street parade, a carnival, a flea market, a talent show, a craft exhibition, a reading of the works of Mark Twain, and fireworks. The competitions held within the festival are inspired by the work of Mark Twain. For example, the fence painting contest is based on “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and the frog contest is based on the story “The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras”.