THERE appears to be some misconception among people and the media as well, when the independence day celebration is announced. It is important to differentiate between the celebration of the ‘day’ of an event and the ‘anniversary’ of that event.

The ‘event’ is often reckoned as the ‘anniversary’ ignoring the year of that event. Accordingly, on Aug 14 this year, it will be the 74th independence day celebration and 73rd independence day anniversary. The reason is the celebration was made on Aug 14, 1947, also, whereas the anniversary had started one year after — from Aug 14, 1948.

This is also true of birthday celebrations. Celebrating the birth on the day on which the child was born is being ignored.

S. Z. Hasan

Karachi

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2020