Casimir Pulaski Day

Today, March 3rd, is Casimir Pulaski Day. Casimir Pulaski was a Revolutionary War Veteran and Hero, and is known as "the father of the American Calvary."

In Illinois today, they got out of school because it's a state recognized holiday in honor of his birthday.

The reason I know about this holiday is because of one of my favorite songs is "Casimir Pulaski Day" by Sufjan Stevens. I've talked about Stevens before, and this was the first song I ever heard by him.

I found this article about the song on The Weeklings in a segment called "Song Beneath the Song". It explains the song section by section, explaining that it's a song told through the perspective of an adolescent boy and the girl he likes, who has been diagnosed and dies of Bone Cancer.

Now, I've known and loved this song since 2011, and the article actually pointed out symbolic things I hadn't previously realized. I always just let the song exist with me, and I see how wrong that was now.
Lex was telling me the other day that before she listened to the new Panic! at the Disco album, "Too Weird to Live, Too Rare to Die!", she did extensive research on it. I can't remember the last time I got that knee-deep in a song. It was probably another Sufjan tune actually, "The Mistress Witch of McClure (or, The Mind that Knows Itself)". I think that's just a testament how great Sufjan Stevens is, though, because music that makes you both think and feel is the kind of music I want to experience. And he really is an experience.