Join us for Nevada City’s Constitution Day Weekend! This event has been a tradition since 1967 and is reported to be the oldest and largest Constitution observance in the western United States. A few highlights of the weekend include a parade, Revolutionary War Living History, and a concert in the historic district.
Above all, you won’t want to miss the annual Constitution Day Parade, which be held in the heart of historic Nevada City. The parade which makes its way through downtown includes marching bands, floats, antique autos, equestrians, politicians and the perennial favorite–the Famous Marching Presidents of Nevada City, a humorous but reverent depiction of each U.S. president.
Theme
This year’s theme is “Life, Liberty, & the Pursuit of Happiness” to commemorate the 250th anniversary.
The Delaware Regiment of the Brigade of the American Revolution will offer living history demonstrations of Revolutionary War soldiers drilling and firing, drilling of kids with mock muskets, music by the California Consolidated Drum Band, and colonial life living history.
Saturday, 9/20 from 10am-5pm
Sunday. 9/21 from 10am-12pm
The reenactments take place at Pioneer Park in Nevada City.
Britanica describes the Constitution of the United States of America as, “the fundamental law of the U.S. Federal system of government and a landmark document of the Western world. The oldest written national constitution in use, the Constitution defines the principal organs of government and their jurisdictions and the basic rights of citizens.”
The following explanation was adapted from the Pacific Legal Foundation.
We celebrate Constitution Day because it, along with its later-affixed Bill of Rights, is the legal means by which outlines our rights.
Sure, a lot has changed since 1787. The Constitution, as originally written, left a lot of people out. The long fight for equality continues to this day. The Constitution was written for us—the generations of Americans who came after the founding, who pursued happiness and flexed our freedoms. The Constitution was enacted by the people for the benefit of the people.
Since our founding, civil rights advocates have relied on the Constitution in their campaign for equality. The Constitution protects minorities of all kinds, from religious to political to racial minorities. The very reason our government was structured as a representative republic rather than a direct democracy was to ensure that minority rights would not be subverted to the will of the majority.
“The Revolution gave us freedom; the Constitution gave us the means to keep it.”
-Bicentennial Communities
“The Constitution was not meant to hold the government back to the time of horse and wagons.”
-Woodrow Wilson, 1908
“The Constitution…is what living men and women think it is.”
-Charles A. Beard, 1936
“Some men look at constitutions with sanctimonious reverence and deem them […] too sacred to be touched. They ascribe to the men of the preceding age a wisdom more than human, and suppose what they did to be beyond amendment. I know that age well; I belonged to it and labored with it. It deserved well of its country. It was like the present, but without the experience of the present. […] I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions…But I know also that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind…We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him as a boy, as civilized society to remain under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.”
-Thomas Jefferson, 1816
Getting Here
Celebrants should plan to arrive about an hour before parade time to get a good vantage point along the parade route. Out-of-town visitors should book local accommodations early.
Nevada City is located on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains midway between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. From Sacramento, take eastbound Interstate 80 to Auburn and Highway 49 north to Nevada City. From Reno, take westbound I-80 and westbound State Route 20.
For more information, call the Chamber at (530) 265-2692
