What is Pinkster? – Historic Hudson Valley

What is Pinkster? – Historic Hudson Valley

Pinkster is a holiday that was celebrated over several days by African and Dutch New Yorkers throughout the 1700s.

The holiday 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.

Albanyโ€™s Dutch-African Spring Festival – New York Almanack

Pinksterfest: Albanyโ€™s Dutch-African Spring Festival – New York Almanack

About Pinksterfeest, Harper’s explained:

“The Pinkster festivities commenced on the Monday after Whitesunday, and now began the fun for the Negroes, for Pinkster was the carnival of the African race. The venerable “King of the Blacks” was “Charley of Pinkster Hill,” so called because he was the principal actor in the festivities. Charles originally came from Africa, having in his infancy been brought from Angolo, in the Guinea Gulf; and when but a boy, he became the purchased slave of one of the most ancient and respectable merchant princes of the olden times, Volkert P. Douw of Wolvenhoeck.”

April 13, 2021 Morning

Good morning! Happy Tuesday. Two weeks to Pink Moon ๐ŸŒ•  to celebrate the Pinkster. ๐ŸŒบ Not sure if related, but I saw some of dogwoods are out in bloom and they smell nice this time of year. Partly cloudy and 46 degrees in Delmar, NY. โ›… Calm wind. Still a bit gray out this morning, but it appears it will be quite nice by mid-day, with weather more like late April then mid-April. But warm enough for a pleasant morning walk. ๐Ÿšถ๐Ÿป I’ll take a shower when I have some downtime at work, and get ready for heading downtown on the bus ๐ŸšŒ at 11:30 for my COVID-shot.  ๐Ÿšฟ

Today will be mostly sunny ๐ŸŒž, with a high of 64 degrees at 4pm. Seven degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical day around April 28th. Another real nice spring day, already have my windows open. ๐ŸŒบ Calm wind becoming north around 5 mph in the afternoon. A year ago, we had light rain in the morning, which became heavy rain by afternoon. The high last year was 64 degrees. The record high of 87 was set in 1977. 5.5 inches of snow fell back in 1950.โ„

Busy day ahead with work than downtown at my lunch break on the bus ๐Ÿš for round two of my COVID-19 Shot. ๐Ÿ’‰ Then come home for a bit and then drive over to the therapist. ๐Ÿ’ญ I’m really looking forward to learning more about my thought process and discussing my feelings and sometimes conservative views, my love of all things fire be in the Pine Bush or burn barrels ๐Ÿ”ฅ and off-grid living. ๐Ÿก So many things to chew over these days. ๐Ÿฎ It’s really hard to find a neutral party to talk to, especially when most of my close friends and colleagues are generally quite liberal. ๐Ÿ™ And it’s only a $25 first incidence appropriation for the copay. ๐Ÿ’ต If I decide it’s worthwhile I’ll budget some more. I hope I become a better person, so I can be better at making more money. Then back home, do a little more work ๐Ÿ’ป and maybe then go down to the park with book. ๐Ÿ“–

Solar noon ๐ŸŒž is at 12:56 pm with sun having an altitude of 56.6° from the due south horizon (-14.3° vs. 6/21). A six foot person will cast a 4 foot shadow today compared to 2.2 feet on the first day of summer. The golden hour ๐Ÿ… starts at 6:58 pm with the sun in the west (277°). ๐Ÿ“ธ

The sunset is in the west-northwest (283°) with the sun dropping below the horizon at 7:35 pm after setting for 2 minutes and 58 seconds with dusk around 8:04 pm, which is one minute and 9 seconds later than yesterday. ๐ŸŒ‡ At dusk you’ll see the Waxing Crescent ๐ŸŒ’ Moon in the west (278°) at an altitude of 13° from the horizon, 252,236 miles away. ๐Ÿš€ The best time to look at the stars is after 8:40 pm. At sunset, look for partly clear skies ๐ŸŒ„ and temperatures around 61 degrees. There will be a calm wind. Definitely a good night for reading down at the park ๐Ÿž although I have to watch out for ticks. Maybe no sitting in the grass. ๐ŸŒพ Today will have 13 hours and 18 minutes of daytime, an increase of 2 minutes and 47 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will be partly cloudy ๐ŸŒค, with a low of 45 degrees at 5am. Eight degrees above normal, which is similar to a typical night around May 8th. Calm wind. In 2020, we had mostly clear skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It got down to 40 degrees. The record low of 19 occurred back in 1973. 

After rain and snow up north on Thursday and Friday, looking at a pretty good weekend. ๐Ÿ˜Ž Saturday, partly sunny, with a high near 57. Sunday, mostly sunny, with a high near 61. Maximum dew point of 38 at 1pm. Typical average high for the weekend is 59 degrees.

Maybe more clouds up north, but I think it will be a good weekend to get out of town, especially if I camp on a hard, well drained area and avoid trails that are particularly wet, maybe preferring road hikes. ๐Ÿ• The fire danger should be much reduced after Thursday and Friday, ๐Ÿ”ฅ which is good because I’ll want a small fire to stay warm with all that cold and damp. Rivers will be ragging for fishing, but I might choose to fish the Sacanadaga in Wells before the open the hydro-dam for the morning power ramp,โšก ๐Ÿ’ฆ or Chittenango Creek not too far downstream where water levels might be high if I go out west. ๐ŸŽฃ Still need to renew my fishing license, hoping I can do that at Wally World or I might hit up a hick-town town hall to get it. ๐ŸŽซ

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until Pink Moon ๐ŸŒ• when the sun will be setting at 7:51 pm with dusk at 8:21 pm. We were discussing the Pinksterfest Albany used to have ๐ŸŒบ before it got cut due to budgetary concerns in favor of a bigger Tulipfest. ๐ŸŒทOn that day in 2020, we had rain showers, cold, cloudy and temperatures between 46 and 37 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 63 degrees. We hit a record high of 91 back in 1962.

Tom Ball Mountain

Shots – Health News : NPR

CDC Studies ‘Breakthrough’ COVID Cases Among People Already Vaccinated : Shots – Health News : NPR

The three vaccines authorized for use against COVID-19 in the United States appear to be at least 94% effective at preventing severe disease and death (starting about two weeks after a person is fully vaccinated), according to data reported so far, and about 80% effective at preventing infection. But that's not 100%, Omer notes, so a relatively small number of infections despite immunization with these very effective vaccines is to be expected.

"So the bottom line is: It's expected. No need to freak out," Omer says.

So far, more than 74 million people have gotten fully vaccinated in the United States. It's unclear how many have later gotten infected with the coronavirus anyway. But Michigan, Washington and other states have reported hundreds of cases. Most people have gotten only mildly ill, but some have gotten very sick. Some have even died.

Song Sparrow

Sometimes their songs are first thing to cue you in theat they are there

Taken on Sunday April 11, 2021 at Education.