Do you accept the Declaration of Independence? Believe in the Constitution?

Best of all, it's free.

More than 20,000 people visited the first-ever Colonial Days event during the Freedom Festival last year, and this year that number is expected to triple, said Genelle Pugmire, chairwoman of the event.

The event has had a bit of a rough year. After its smash success last year, organizers had secured the promise of "a large financial gift" to make this year's event possible, and while they still hope to get that gift, it did not materialize in time to benefit this year's celebration.

That left organizers scrambling to fill in the gaps with donations, and one by one, the community rallied and saved the event, Pugmire said. Not only that, it is bigger than last year, featuring a major new exhibit, a 19.5-foot-tall replica of the aft section of the Mayflower II, a ship built in England in 1957 based on the best available research of what the actual Mayflower looked like.

As event-goers walk through the ship, they can see first-hand what it would have been like to make the journey to America. The ship, which comes apart in puzzle-like pieces, is part of a new traveling museum display meant for schools, organizers said.

There are also many Colonial-era crafts and demonstrations on display. Marie Bassett of Orem sits making bobbin lace, an exquisitely detailed task that requires the maker to track dozens of threads, each on an individual bobbin, while following a pattern and keeping the whole project in place with dozens of pins.

"It's cheaper than psychotherapy," Bassett joked.

One square inch of lace takes an hour to create, and Bassett had a book full of her creations on display. Using silk thread, on Wednesday she was making a bookmark using a Dutch technique.

Wendy Dahle, who has taught basket weaving at BYU for the past 28 years -- yes, basket weaving --¬ wove intricate baskets using thin strips of rattan palm over a skeleton of white oak ribs as she talked to visitors. She's so good that she often seemed to weave unconsciously, her fingers flying while she chatted.

Micheal Mendenhall of Wellsville was working on a blacksmithy commission of such rarity that it has probably never happened before in the history of Utah Valley, and may never happen again -- he was commissioned by organizers to hand craft hinges for a wooden stockade.

Mendenhall had his smithy set up at Colonial Square, including a coal fire and bellows and a large selection of his handmade tools. Despite the heat, he was hammering out an iron pin for the hinge Wednesday.

Nearby, Greg Hardy and his family were living out their own family history. Their ancestors were removed by gunpoint from their family home near Boston by the English military in America's Colonial era. Since 1974, Hardy has been re-enacting his family's history in an attempt to better understand what his family faced.

"They forced you off your land at gunpoint," he said.

Vanessa Wuehler of Provo brought her 19-month-old son, Isaac, to Colonial Days as a way to get out of the house.

"I was a history major and I love history," she said.

The best part of the event was that almost all the venues were shaded by huge trees, making it a place to beat the heat, she said.

"Good morrow, good folks of this fair city," shouted out a man at "The World of 1607" venue, where costumed volunteers re-enacted a street meeting meant to convince people to join the charter to the Virginia Colonies, promising both spiritual and material wealth to those willing to leave their old lives behind.

Knowledge of Colonial America is more and more on the minds of Americans in recent years, with last week's Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment and other world events, Pugmire said.

More and more, adult Americans are asking themselves what the actions of the Founding Fathers really mean in 2008.

"There is a fervor of people asking themselves, 'Do I believe in the Constitution, do I accept the Declaration of Independence?' " she said. "Our children are being taught about all this in school but some of us as adults have forgotten."

Colonial Days is a way for all Utahns to reconnect to the nation's genesis, she said.