Why Founders Day?

Post written and copyrighted 2014 by Doris McCraw

On Sunday July 27, 2014 the "Think You Know History" series continues with a special Founders Day Celebration at the Historic Evergreen Cemetery and Chapel. This free event celebrates beginnings, Colorado Springs; Colorado and the wonderful history of this region. For more information contact: evergreencemeterysociety@yahoo.com

Founders Day! Why celebrate something that happened so many years ago? The question is probably what most folks today wonder. It is much like the old house that has stood the test of time and is no longer considered relevant to the modern world. When something is not considered important, you get rid of it. Yet what price do we pay when we no longer care about what came before?

George Santayana, a Spanish philosopher, wrote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” If we do not learn the past; learn from the past, then not only can we not remember it, we are condemned to repeat it. The gift we can give ourselves and our future generations is the gift of knowledge. Not just names and dates, but the events, environment and mindset of those earlier days. How do we do that?

Many of us when we talk of knowledge think of the stuffy classroom, the required papers and the rote learning of “Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue in 1492.” But knowledge and learning can be, and is so much more.

For some of us, it is days spent reading newspapers and literature from the past. It is verifying facts and figures, not just accepting what one person said, for they may have been biased. For others it is taking part in or listening to lectures - historic speakers. Perhaps trips to museums, or living history museums are the order of the day.

One way to capture the time, the feel and the memory of those early days, and teach children, is to take part in events that were so much a part of our past. The celebrations, the food, games, music all are ways to experience what it may have been like for our fore-bearers.

So why Founders Day? Because it is a chance to interact with history, the chance to experience the fun and maybe learn a thing or two. It is also the chance to actually speak with people face to face. Now that can be a novel concept these days.

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