Join us for a statewide secular festival at the California State Capitol building.

2021 Theme: "Reason in the Voting Booth"

The History and Culture of Freethought Day

Freethought Day dates back to 1692, during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. Massachusetts Governor William Phips wrote, on October 12, about the quagmire that the trials had degenerated into, in part by a reliance on "evidence" of a non-objective nature and especially "spectral evidence" in which the accusers claimed to see devils and other phantasms consorting with the accused.

Learn more about Freethought Day from the Sacramento Atheists and Other Freethinkers and Wikipedia.