America uses a lot of food-related phrases when describing itself! It has long been known as a “melting pot” because it is the home of people from all over the world who blend together, but more recently it has also been described as a “salad” because each group also manages to remain unique. It seems that everyone can agree on apple pie though, since the phrase “as American as apple pie” has long been popular for describing something typically American!
The American flag is decorated with white stars (representing states) on a blue background and 13 stripes of red and white (representing the 13 original colonies). The original flag depicted a circle of 13 white stars, and a new star was added in a new design to represent each new state after. Hawaii became the 50th state on August 21, 1959 but the current American flag of 50 stars did not become official until the next Fourth of July.
People think Halloween (observed on October 31st: children wear costumes, carve pumpkins, and walk around asking for candy (trick&treating)) is an American tradition. Actually Halloween was actually first celebrated in Europe. Did you know that American children American children play the game called Apple Bopping (trying to catch apples swimming in a water tub by teeth) during Halloween?