PINKSTER FESTIVAL
People learn about history at event
RENSSELAER, N.Y. » The Crailo State Historic Site in Rensselaer was filled with guests Saturday during a Pinkster Festival.
Once a Dutch holiday commemorating Pentecost, Pinkster became a distinctly African-American holiday in the Hudson River Valley during the colonial era. During the 17th and 18th centuries, enslaved and free African-Americans transformed Pinkster from a Dutch religious observance into a spring festival and a celebration of African cultural traditions.
All along the Hudson
River and on Albany’s “Pinkster Hill” (the current site of the state Capitol), enslaved African-Americans reunited with family and friends and celebrated Pinkster with storytelling, food, music and dance. Other Pinkster traditions, like the selection of the Pinkster King, created opportunities for enslaved African-Americans to honor respected members of the community and to subtly mock their white enslavers.
The five-hour Crailo celebration included presentations about the experiences of enslaved Africans and African-Americans in colonial New York, traditional dancing and the--
atrical demos, storytelling, music, a culinary historian preparing food and interpreting historic African and African-American foodways, along with crafts, games, and refreshments.
By the mid-1700s, markets in NewYork and Brooklyn were attracting large gatherings at Pinkster time. Enslaved men and women sold such items as berries, herbs, sassafras bark, beverages, and oysters at these markets, and in turn used the money earned to participate in the Pinkster celebration.
During these years Pinkster was always presided over by King Charles, a figure of great local renown and preeminence within Albany’s African community. Charles, an Angolaborn captive claimed by the mayor of Albany, was tall, handsome, an athletic and tireless dancer, and a gifted speaker. As the Master of Ceremonies, he was responsible for directing the event and keeping up the spirits of participants during the long sessions of drumming and dancing that crowned the cele- bration. The style of dance and the complex layering of contrasting rhythms by the drummers and clappers attest to the survival and retention of West African traditions.
“There are Pinkster Festivals in other parts of the state, I know there’s one in Sleepy Hollow, but it’s a pretty good celebration and it’s growing and it’s embracing something that had already existed,” explained Donald Hyman, who was portraying King Charles during the event Saturday.
The Crailo site was once a home for the Van Rensselaer family and now serves as a museum of colonial Dutch history in the Hudson Valley. It was named after the Van Rensselaer’s estate in the Netherlands — Crayloo or Cralo, which meant “crows’ wood” in Dutch. It’s on a beautiful block in the city of Rensselaer along the riverfront.
“This is our second year doing this here at Crailo; Crailo is a museum of the Dutch heritage in the Hudson-River Valley, so that’s why we do it here because Pinkster began as a Dutch holiday,” said Cordell Reaves, Historic Preservation Programs Analyst for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.