Farmhouse Family Day: Pinkster Celebration

The Wyckoff House Museum & Elite Learners bring you a special Pinkster Festival with live music, carnival activities, drumming and more!

Join us for a special Pinkster Family Day featuring storytelling and music from Chief Baba Neil Clarke, and stick around to make some music of your own! Play with Colonial-era toys and games, explore our historic house, and join our farm team for some hands-on outdoor activities.

What is the History of Pinkster?

The Pinkster Festival is a very important 350-year-old, but little known, Africanized celebration which took place annually in the New York State for almost 200 years. Pinkster is Dutch for the Christian holiday of Pentecost, the commemoration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus prompting them to “speak-in-tongues” or different languages and go forth spreading their joyous message. It’s considered to be the beginning of the formal Christian church. According to the Christian calendar Pentecost/ Pinkster occurs annually 50 days after Easter.

These observations began here with the original Dutch settlers who did engaged in the enslavement of African people from 1626. The Pinkster festival was a time when the Dutch would go to church to observe the Pinkster holiday. They would give their enslaved Africans time off with the freedom to engage in normally uncustomary activities. The Africans took this opportunity to celebrate with their own music, dance and other cultural expressions of their African heritage.

The Pinkster Festival evolved into what is probably the oldest openly African holiday celebration in America. It was very popular for nearly 200 years. These celebrations were outlawed in 1811 finally disappearing around 1850. You can help revive this important historical holiday by celebrating with us and taking the celebration home with you!

Other things to know:

• Farmhouse Family Day is from 12-3PM
• Performances by Chief Baba Neil begin at 1pm.
• Featuring Mr. Vee the Ballon Twister & Sparkles the Clown!
• This is an all ages event, ideal for kids ages 4-10.

Pinkster is made possible by is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the Council Members Farah Louis and Mercedes Narcisse.