The big day is still a month away, but let me be the first to offer season’s greetings.

Happy septaquintaquinquecentennial. Or maybe it’s demisemiseptcentennial. But it might be quartoseptcentennial or dodransbicentennial.

There’s mucho disagreement about the proper Latin term for it, so I’ll say it in plain English:

Happy 175th anniversary, Texas.

On March 2, we’ll celebrate the fact that 175 years ago, 59 men put their lives and their fortunes on the line to sign a document declaring Texas a sovereign nation.

The outcome was far from certain as the signers put pen to parchment at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

The military situation looked bleak, and some delegates had agitated to adjourn the convention and ride to the defense of the Alamo. But Sam Houston and others insisted that the convention finish its work. If Texas was to be considered a nation, they maintained, it must act like one. And the first official act was to declare independence from Mexico.

Finally the document was finished and signed. But there was neither time nor reason for celebration.

Four days later, the Alamo fell. Twenty-five days after the birth of the republic, 342 Texas prisoners of war were massacred at Goliad.

The chances of the newborn nation surviving to its first birthday seemed slim to none, and hundreds of terrified settlers fled eastward toward Louisiana as the Mexican army advanced.

But 50 days after Washington-on-the-Brazos, the mouse roared. On April 21, the ragtag Texas army launched a surprise attack on Santa Ana’s troops at San Jacinto, using ball and blade to punctuate the words of the declaration. The battle was over in 18 minutes.

Texas was free and the world hasn’t been the same since. The Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto became the stuff of legends. And in 1845, the republic they created became a bigger-than-life state.

Through the years, Texans developed a sense of place — and a pride of place — stronger than any other region in the world. And as obnoxious as we Texans can be at times, that immodesty was somewhat understandable. After all, Texas gave to America many of her best and brightest sons and daughters for more than a century and a half.

So there’s good reason for a Texas-sized celebration on this 175th anniversary, and the good folks downstream at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park and the Star of the Republic Museum are planning exactly that.

They’ve traced and invited descendants of the 59 signers of the declaration to attend, and at last report more than 1,000 of them were planning to be there.

They’ll witness the unveiling of a giant mosaic painting of their ancestors signing the document at Independence Hall. And, as usual, there will be re-enactments, music, historical demonstrations and speeches, including a keynote by U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison.

We’re planning some celebrations of our own here at the Trib in honor of Texas’ 175th. Between now and Texas Independence Day, we’ll ask readers to see how good they are at putting names with faces. We’ll put photos of historic Texans on our website, and you’ll get the chance to identify them.

We’ll also invite you to help us compile a couple of lists: A list of 175 things we love about Texas (barbecue, chili and high school football, for instance), and a list of things we’d just as soon do without. (Chiggers, August heat and tornadoes, perhaps?)

And just for grins, we’ll open up the suggestion box so you can help us with a very important question:

Can you suggest a better name for our 175th birthday than “septaquintaquinquecentennial?”

We look forward to hearing your suggestions. Meanwhile, see you at the coffee shop. And, oh, yes: God bless Texas.

Donnis Baggett is publisher of the Waco Tribune-Herald . His e-mail address is dbaggett@wacotrib.com.