Celebrate the state's founding with Maryland Day events

St. Clement’s Island Museum will hold its annual event from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on March 25 at 38370 Point Breeze Road in Colton’s Point.

“Maryland Day is the most important event in our program year, since it marks the beginning of both St. Mary’s County and the state of Maryland in 1634,” St. Mary’s County Museum Division Manager Karen Stone said in a news release. “On this day, we honor the meeting of two cultures — the newly-arrived English and the native Piscataway — and the friendship and collaboration that ensued. It is also a day on which we celebrate Maryland’s religious history and its place in the development of the statutes of religious freedom that are so pivotal in this country’s history.”

The official ceremony begins at 10 a.m. and will include the Papal Nuncio, St. Mary’s County Commissioner President Randy Guy, Piscataway Tribal Leader Francis Gray and other dignitaries. Keynote speaker Lucille Walker will speak on the recent designation of Southern Maryland as a National Heritage Area.

The ceremony will also feature an interpreter portraying Father Andrew White, who will make the ceremonial presentation of gifts from the English to the Natives. Students from Father Andrew White School will provide music and students from Leonard Hall Junior Naval Academy will present the colors.

A commemorative mass on St. Clement’s Island will occur shortly after the ceremony, depending on weather.

There will also be food trucks, a special display of Native American artifacts from the Piscataway Tribe, the original Maryland Charter and plans for the upcoming, brand-new St. Clement’s Island Museum building available for the public.

There will also be free water taxi rides and live music.

For more information, call 301-769-2222 or go to www.Facebook.com/SCIMuseum.

Historic St. Mary’s City will host its Maryland Day festivities from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, March 25, at 18751 Hogaboom Lane in St. Mary’s City.

A ceremony will take place 1 p.m. and culminate with the Ceremony of the Flags as children from across Maryland present their country colors. The outdoor living history sites will also be open.

For more information, go to www.hsmcdigshistory.org.

A Maryland Day history talk will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 21, at the St. Mary’s County Public Library’s Leonardtown branch.

St. Mary’s County Museums Division Manager Karen Stone will discuss the founding of Maryland from the perspective of local indigenous peoples and their relations with various colonial groups.

For more information, go to www.stmalib.org.