Celebrate the Afro-Dutch holiday of Pinkster, a festival of spring, family, culture, and resistance with live music, dance, games, crafts, food, vendors, history, & more! Free for everyone!
Pinkster is the Dutch name for Pentecost, a religious holiday and celebration of spring where people took time to travel and visit family. In the New Netherland Colony, Pinkster was transformed into a unique Afro-Dutch celebration - a week of temporary freedom for enslaved people. Able to travel, earn money, and gather in groups, Pinkster allowed enslaved people to take a break from their endless work, see separated family members, preserve and pass on culture to the next generation, and resist enslavement. Celebrate African culture in America and New York's unique history!
For the third year in a row, Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site celebrates Pinkster with a Jubilee - we'll feature live music and performances from Chief Baba Niel Clark & the Pinkster Players, Carla and Keyes, and more. Participate in free kids' activities, crafts, and games, and visit vendors specializing in African and African-American gifts, art, food, and more.
2025 Pinkster Jubilee is sponsored in part by the Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area.
Coming soon!
Are you interested in becoming a vendor? Spaces are just $25 for a 10'x10' space. Contact David Lucas at david.lucas2@parks.ny.gov for more information.
Starting on the fiftieth day after Easter, Dutch and African New Yorkers celebrated Pinkster, a word taken from “Pinksteren,” the Dutch word for Pentecost. Known in English colonies as Whitsunday or Whitsuntide, Pentecost is a Christian holy day which marks the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles, granting them the ability to speak in tongues and spread the Gospel throughout the world. In the Netherlands, Pinksteren was celebrated since the Medieval period as a combination of Christian religious holy day and a festival welcoming the return of spring. It was a time for religious services, baptisms, confirmations, and weddings, alongside more pagan celebrations of crowning a flower queen and dancing around a maypole. Neighbors visited each other, communities gathered to play games and sports, and children dyed eggs and ate gingerbread.
In the Dutch New Netherland colony, especially in New York and New Jersey, enslaved Africans combined the Christian traditions of Pentecost with elements of African celebrations to create the unique festival known as Pinkster. Despite its Dutch origins, by the early 1800s, Pinkster was considered a largely African-American holiday.
