On the first of March, on the holiday...

So goes one of the final lines in the Sufjan Stevens song Casimir Pulaski Day, one of my all-time favorites now. And, sure, I'll be glad to answer you and tell you exactly what Casimir Pulaski Day is (thanks for asking)!

Casimir Pulaski was a renown Polish patriotic military leader who fought in his country's resistance against imperial Russia's hegemonistic efforts under Catherine II in the late eighteenth century. Finally forced to flee his native land, he was recruited by Lafayette in France to join the Americans in their struggle against the British during the American War of Independence. Pulaski is credited for making the American cavalry a formidable force and probably saved his commander George Washington's life when he led a brave charge during the ill-fated Battle of Brandywine. Ultimately, Pulaski died of a gunshot wound during the Battle of Savannah in 1779. Being that the state of Illinois, and in particular the city of Chicago, has a very large ethnic Polish population, this great hero in American history, who could barely speak English, was accorded an annual holiday by the state and city, respectively. Held in honor of Pulaski's March 4 birthday, the official observance is always on the first Monday of March. And this year, just like in the Sufjan Stevens song, it is today, March 1.

Interestingly (for me), in other locations around the country, Pulaski is celebrated not around his birthday but rather around the anniversary of his death in battle in October. This brings to my mind how some more contemporary fallen notables are remembered as well. Few people are aware of the birthdays of John F.Kennedy, Elvis Presley, or John Lennon. It is the anniversaries of their deaths that instead mark the times that their lives and accomplishments are recalled and celebrated. I tend to prefer the way that the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., has come to be honored, according to his birthday instead of his death day.

Casimir Pulaski Day, written and recorded by Sufjan Stevens as part of his 2005 album Illinois, doesn't directly refer to the fallen patriotic mercenary who gave his life for a new country whose language was largely a mystery to him. But it did whet my curiosity enough to investigate this interesting and important character in our history. Ironically, another American Revolutionary War hero, John Paul Jones, actually went over to Russia after the war and served for a time in the navy of the very same Catherine II against whom Casimir Pulaski had been fighting earlier on behalf of his Poland.