How patriotic are you ?

Did you know it 2 days it will be the 200th year anniversary of The Star Spangled Banner?

In the year 1814 on September 14, soldiers hung a huge flag in Honor of winning of the war of 1812.

Francis Scott Key saw this and was inspired to write the song that today is our National Anthem .

Our Flag at Sanctae Familiae Villa

Recent polls show that only 10% of Americans know the words to are anthem.  So if your in the 90% of Americans who don't know the words here is our National Anthem. The  lyrics are below as well as a nice karoke video for you to sing along. You have 2 days to learn it! Be Patriotic and Have Fun!

Also look below the lyrics for a link to quiz your knowledge on Our Nation's Anthem

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!



If you feel you have done a great job, you already knew our Anthem or you are just a plain smarty-pants . . . then check out this link to the Smithsonian and Collect Stars

http://amhistory.si.edu/starspangledbanner/the-war-of-1812.aspx