United States · observance
September 17 — the day the Constitution was signed in 1787.
2026: September 17, 2026 · 2027: September 17, 2027
Thirty-nine men signed the Constitution in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787, at the end of a summer of argument behind closed windows. It was not law yet; it had to be ratified by the states, and that took until 1788. Benjamin Franklin, eighty-one and carried to the hall in a chair, said he consented to it “because I expect no better, and because I am not sure that it is not the best.”
It is the oldest written national constitution still in use, and it is short — you can read the whole thing in under half an hour. Everything the American government is allowed to do is in it, and everything it is forbidden to do is mostly in the ten amendments added four years later.
What a family can actually do
Read the Preamble aloud. It is one sentence, fifty-two words, and it says who is doing the ordaining: “We the People.” Then find one thing the Constitution says the government may NOT do.
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