Every June 19th, I try to slow down. Not because I have it all figured out or because I have some grand ritual planned. Just because the day deserves it. Juneteenth is not a "bonus summer holiday." It is one of the most significant dates in American history, and I want to talk about why, both as someone who studies history and as someone who has built a business that was only possible because of what this day represents.

What Juneteenth Actually Commemorates

On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that enslaved people in Confederate states were free. That is the date most of us learned in school. What most of us were not taught is that freedom on paper and freedom in practice were two very different things.

Texas was the most remote of the Confederate states, and Union troops had barely set foot there. So slavery continued, largely unchecked, for two and a half more years after that proclamation was signed. It was not until June 19, 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and read General Order No. 3, that enslaved Black Texans, more than 250,000 people, were finally informed they were free.

Two and a half years. That gap is the whole story. Juneteenth does not celebrate the day freedom was declared. It celebrates the day freedom actually arrived, for people who had already been free on paper for years without anyone telling them.

A Holiday Built By the People Who Lived It

What I love most about Juneteenth is that it was never handed down from anywhere official. The first celebrations, called Jubilee Day, started in 1866, one year after Granger's announcement, organized by freed people themselves. No one told them to celebrate. They built the tradition because the moment demanded it.

That tradition carried for more than 150 years before it became a federal holiday in 2021. Long before any government recognized it, Black families and communities were already gathering, already telling the story, already making sure it did not get lost. That kind of memory-keeping, done without permission or institutional support, is its own form of resilience.

Growing Up With Juneteenth

I did not learn about Juneteenth from a textbook. I learned it the way it was actually meant to be passed down, in community. Growing up, Juneteenth meant our celebrating at a local community center and the day was filled with parade (sometimes I participated in) , good food, music, and a whole lot of people who felt like family whether they were blood relatives or not. It was joyful before I even understood why it mattered. The history came later. The feeling came first.

That order matters to me now that I have a daughter of my own. I want her to have what I had, the parade, the music, the food, the people. But I also want to make sure she understands what she is celebrating long before she has to ask. This is not just another day off the calendar for her. It is going to be a day she knows the history of, the way it was given to me, in community, on purpose.

Why This Day Hits Different for Me as a Founder

I built Cali Meets NYC out of a love story between two coasts, two cultures, two halves of my life that did not seem like they belonged together until I made them. Every part of running this business, picking out wax, choosing fragrance notes, naming a candle after a real zip code, deciding what story gets told and how, is a freedom I get to exercise because of everything that came before me.

I do not take that lightly. Being a Black woman who owns her own brand, who gets to decide what her work looks like and who it speaks to, did not happen in a vacuum. It happened because people fought, waited, organized, and refused to let a story get buried. Juneteenth is part of that lineage. My business is part of that lineage too, even if the connection is not always loud about it.

So on June 19th, I am not just taking the day off. I am sitting with the fact that the freedom to build something of my own, on my own terms, was not guaranteed. It was earned, by people who never got to see what came after.

How We Mark It

Nothing complicated. Good food, good music, a little quiet somewhere in there. A candle lit, because that is just who I am. And usually a conversation with my family about what this day means to us specifically, not in the abstract, but in our actual lives.

If you are looking for a way to mark the day yourself, you do not need a big gesture. Read the story. Say the names. Sit with it for longer than five minutes. Light something that makes the moment feel intentional instead of just another day on the calendar.

That is really all Juneteenth has ever asked of any of us. Remember. Honor it. Keep the story moving forward.

Cali Meets NYC Co is a Black-owned, small-batch candle and body care brand hand-poured in Lake Worth, FL. Shop the full collection at calimeetsnyc.co and follow us @calimeetsnycco on Instagram and Threads.