Ring In Constitution Week with DAR Smith-McMillan Chapter This Saturday

Sept. 18-24, 2022 marks the 67th year the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) will celebrate Constitution Week. To honor the anniversary of the signing of the Constitution, the Smith-McMillan Chapter of DAR will hold a Ringing of the Bells ceremony. We ring the bells to celebrate the signing of the Constitution. On Sept. 17, 1787, the delegates of the Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution. As the delegates were leaving the Pennsylvania State House at 4 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time), the bells were rung to signify the signing of the Constitution. Constitution Week began in 1955 when the President General of the DAR, Gertrude S. Carroway, adopted a project to promote the observance of the U. S. Constitution with a memorial week beginning on the anniversary of the signing of this document, Sept. 17. The DAR petitioned the U.S. Congress to dedicate Sept. 17-23 of each year to the commemoration of Constitution Week. Congress adopted the resolution, and on Aug. 2, 1956, President Dwight D Eisenhower signed it into Public Law #915.

The celebration’s goals are threefold: to encourage the study of the historical events that led to the framing of the Constitution in September 1787; to remind the public that the Constitution is the basis of America’s great heritage and the foundation for its way of life; and to emphasize U.S. citizens’ responsibility to protect, defend and preserve the U.S. Constitution.

DAR’s Constitution Hall is the only structure dedicated as a memorial to the U. S. Constitution. The inscription on the pediment reads, “Constitution Hall - a memorial to that immortal document, the Constitution of the United States, in which are incorporated the principles of freedom, equality and justice for which our forefathers strove.”

The Smith-McMillan DAR Chapter invites everyone to join in the celebration of The Ringing of the Bells on Saturday, Sept. 17. The ceremony will begin at 2:45 p.m. on the Fayette County Courthouse lawn. The short ceremony will begin with the reading of the Constitution Week Proclamation that Judge Joe Weber signed. Smith-McMillan DAR members will share a few interesting facts about the Constitution. Everyone will recite the Preamble of the Constitution, and then the bells will be rung at 3 p.m. for one minute. After we ring our bells, a prayer written by George Washington will be said, and we will end the ceremony by singing “God Bless America.”

Bring your bells and feel free to wear red, white and blue. We would also invite all area churches to ring their bell for one minute at 3 p.m.