BCHS EVENT:
Pinkster Fest
A Jersey Dutch Celebration of Spring
Sunday, May 21, 2017, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Experience history in one of the storied places where it was made!
Pinkster is celebrated with a Maypole Dance at 1:30 & 3 pm with a participation session during the country dances. Ridley and Anne Enslow are featured on fiddle and hammered dulcimer. Naturally dyed eggs for Pinkster in the Out Kitchen. Artist Tina Stonefield Ishihara will be exhibiting selections of her work in the Steuben House. Ishihara will be demonstrating a traditional 7 layer Dutch method style of painting of the late Kevin Wright. Plans include donating the painting to BCHS upon its completion.

Lost Art Lacers will be demonstrating the fine art of lace-making. (bobbin-lacemaking like the ruff neckpiece Queen Elizabeth wore) An antique lace-making pillow from the BCHS collections will be on exhibit.Pinkster cake, strawberries & cream, doughnuts and lemonade will be served in the restored 18th century tavern in the Campbell-Christie House. Tour the kitchen garden.

Popular programs that are geared toward children include a very large-scale, hands-on NJ map with figurines - try and figure out solutions to geographical challenges facing Washington and Cornwallis' troops and scavenger hunt with prize. New games are planned.

Historic New Bridge Landing:
American Revolutionary War Battleground including 3 Jersey-Dutch Sandstone Houses including the Zabriskie-Steuben House (a state-historic site), exhibits, tavern, barn, gift shop & outkitchen.  $10 adults, $7 students, BCHS members free.
HNBL, 1201-1209 Main St., River Edge, NJ. Site map & directions: VISIT HNBL PDF. (Become a member and support our efforts, $20 individual / $30 household)

Check our website for event updates, events subject to change  | www.bergencountyhistory.org | contactBCHS@bergencountyhistory.org | 201.343.9492

All 3 Jersey-Dutch Houses are connected by a gravel walking path. Free parking is available or take a train on the Pascack Valley Line from Secaucus Junction via NJ Transit to the "New Bridge Landing" train stop in River Edge.

Traveling by carriage from Newark to view the Passaic Falls in Paterson on June 6, 1797, William Dunlap noted in his diary, “The borders of the Pasaick [River] are colour’d by the Iris now in bloom. On the rocks near the [Great] Falls was the Kalmia [or mountain laurel], the wild Columbine & wood pink. The settlements along the river are Dutch, it is the holiday they call pinkster & every public house is crowded with merry makers & waggon's full of rustic beaus & belles met us at every mile.”
The name of the holiday derives from the Greek word, Pentecost, meaning “fiftieth day,” which originally signified the ancient Jewish celebration of the first fruits of the harvest, arriving seven weeks after Passover. On the seventh Sunday after Easter, Christians commemorate the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles. The English identified this holiday with the white garments of baptismal candidates, calling it Whitsunday or “White Sunday.” Among the Jersey Dutch, a rose-colored Azalea blossom, known as the “Pinxter blomachee,” was the May bush.