What Is Pinkster?

Pinkster is a holiday that was celebrated over several days by African and Dutch New Yorkers throughout the 1700s. "Pinkster" is the Dutch name for Pentecost, an important festival in the Christian calendar. Pentecost is celebrated seven weeks after Easter, in May or early June. Because of its timing, Pinkster was also associated with the renewal of life in Spring, so it combined religious and secular components.

Pinkster was brought to the New World by Dutch settlers in the 1620s and flourished in the areas of heaviest Dutch settlement: the Hudson Valley, northern New Jersey, and western Long Island. These same areas also had significant populations of enslaved Africans from the 1600s until emancipation in New York in 1827. For enslaved people, the year offered few holidays or breaks from tedious and often grueling work. For rural captives in particular, who were often isolated from larger African communities, Pinkster became the most important break in the year.

Despite Pinkster's Dutch origins, Africans in New York and New Jersey were so successful at incorporating their own cultures into the celebration that by the early 1800s Pinkster was actually considered an African-American holiday.

Pinkster was celebrated over several days. The Dutch observed Pinkster by attending church services, and important church functions like baptisms and confirmations were often held during the festival. Neighbors visited one another, and children dyed eggs and ate gingerbread.

Slave-owning families granted time off to captive men and women. The Pinkster holiday gave enslaved Africans the opportunity to reunite with loved ones and family members who often lived some distance away. Many journeyed from rural areas into New York City, with its significantly larger population of both free and enslaved Africans. By the mid 1700s, markets in New York 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.

Africans and Europeans alike enjoyed drinking, game-playing, dance, and music at these gatherings. Vendors adorned market stalls with greenery and flowers (azaleas are associated with Pinkster), and European vendors hired skillful African dancers to draw crowds to their booths. Dances such as the "jig," "breakdown," or "double shuffle" synthesized African and European elements with newly invented steps, and were the forerunners of tap and break dancing.