De-commemoration

Sometimes, people decide that a statue or a monument in a park or on a street doesn't represent them anymore. So, they might take it down, change it, or even get rid of it completely! It's like deciding a drawing you made a long time ago doesn't show what you like anymore and you want to draw something new.

This is called de-commemoration. It's the opposite of putting up a new statue to remember something important.

A smart person named Guy Beiner, who is a historian (that's someone who studies the past!), came up with the word 'de-commemoration' in 2018. He noticed that people all over the world sometimes change or remove things that were put up to remember people or events from the past. It's like when you decide to rearrange your toys because you like playing with them in a different way now.

People might de-commemorate things because they learn new information or feel differently about the past. Maybe a statue was put up to honor someone who did something not so great. Or perhaps the way something was remembered doesn't feel fair to everyone anymore. It's important to think about what we choose to remember and why. It helps us understand our world better.

De-commemoration can happen in different ways. Sometimes, people might protest or ask for a statue to be moved. Other times, it might be a decision made by the people in charge of a town or city. It can involve taking a statue down, covering it up, or even changing its meaning. It's all about how people decide to change what they see in public spaces.