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When the weather gets warmer and days grow longer, people around the world take time out of their busy lives to celebrate. In America, we celebrate our nation with the 4th of July, but other countries around the world also throw great summer parties!

This 4th of July, we’re looking forward to fireworks shows, family barbecues, neighborhood block parties, and Old Navy’s star-spangled clothing line, but around the US, there are plenty more festivities to take part in!

To attend the longest 4th of July parade in the nation, pack your bags for Alameda, California. From start to end, their parade runs 3.3 miles

More into the music scene? Washington, DC is the place for you. Each 4th of July, the lawn of the Capitol becomes a concert venue for headliners like Dolly Parton and Aretha Franklin. This concert is livestreamed, so even if you live in Alaska, you can tune into the fun and see which celebrity will grace the stage this year (we’re hoping for Taylor Swift. 🤞)

To honor their local veterans, Nevada’s Incline Village hosts a three-day celebration. Check out their epic festivities here.

Like Incline Village, we’d like to thank veterans, active duty soldiers, and their amazing families for keeping us safe, free, and, of course, awesome. The 4th of July couldn’t happen without you! 🇺🇸

While you’re enjoying your favorite summer holidays, why not celebrate great international address data too? Here are a few APIs that’ll have your data ready to party!

Put real-time global address verification to the testTake worldwide address autocomplete for a spinSee lightning-fast international geocoding in action
International Address VerificationInternational Address AutocompleteInternational Geocoding

Ready to learn about the summer celebrations happening across the globe? Here’s what you have to look forward to:

Summer holidays from Japan to Brazil

While we observe our nation’s favorite red, white, and blue holiday, there’s a variety of summer celebrations going on around the world! Here’s how other nations keep their summer full of fun (and delicious food).

1. Japan’s Tanabata Festival 🇯🇵

Three days after the 4th of July, Japan celebrates Tanabata, which commemorates the one day each year that two lovers from Japanese folklore—Orihime and Hikoboshi—are allowed to meet.

During this festival, wishes, prayers, and poems are written on colorful pieces of paper known as tanzakuTanzaku are then hung on bamboo branches, along with other decorations, with the hope that the wishes written on them will come true and the prayers will be answered. 🎋 

Decorative tanzaku

Tanabata festivals are also known for their outdoor food stalls. There, you can indulge in takoyaki, balls of fried octopus, and yakisoba, fried noodles served with pork and cabbage.

There’s still a lot you can learn about Japanese holidays—and Japanese addresses. We’ll leave you to research the former, but we can help out with the latter. We’ve compiled everything you need to know about addresses in Japan. 

2. Swedish Midsummer Celebrations 🇸🇪

Parts of Sweden lie so far north that on Midsummer, the longest day of the year, you can actually see the sun at midnight! To celebrate this day of never-ending sunlight, Swedes head to the countryside, leaving Stockholm and other large cities eerily empty.

Midsummer is known for its floral traditions. These include weaving and wearing flower crowns, decorating maypoles with flowers and foliage, and placing seven flowers beneath pillows to invite dreams of future soulmates.

Like Tanabata in Japan, Sweden’s Midsummer is celebrated with delicious food, which typically includes pickled herring, dill potatoes, and strawberry-and-cream-topped cake.

Before you pack your bags for Sweden, you may want to practice your ring dances and how to write a Swedish address. Luckily, we have Swedish address examples ready for you. 

3. Festa Junina in Brazil 🇧🇷

At the end of June, Brazil celebrates Festa JuninaThose participating in the festivities typically wear clothing that reflects Brazil’s long history of agriculture, such as straw hats, colorful dresses, and plaid shirts.

Festa Junina is also marked by lively music and traditional dances. You’ll often find partygoers doing the Quadrilha, a type of square dance, or playing Forró music, which features the accordion, triangle, and bass drum.

Festa Junina bass drums

No summer festival is complete without food. At Festa Junina, you can look forward to cinnamon rice pudding—arroz-doce—and sweet corn tamales—pamonhas. 🫔

Festa Junina festivities are very popular in Brazil’s largest cities, like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, which are also both states! If you’re looking to ship your accordion to either of these cities, you’ll need to know Brazil's administrative area names and abbreviations

Address data from Japan to Brazil

This summer, people living everywhere from Japan to Sweden to Brazil to the US have celebrations to look forward to. At Smarty, we have address data for these countries—and 246 more. 

Our international address data includes foreign address formats for every country and territory outside the US. Take a look!

Searching for international address data beyond global address formats? Check out our International Address VerificationInternational Geocoding, and International Address Autocomplete. You could even test them for yourself during a 42-day free trial

You could also test a delicious Tanabata, Midsummer, or Festa Junina recipe. You might even discover a whole new dish to add to your 4th of July barbecue menu. We know we want to! 🤤

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