Tag: history
The Hidden History of Groundhog Day
January 31, 2022[caption id="attachment_273823" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Punxsutawney Phil meets his adoring masses in 2020, when he called an early spring. What will he say this year?[/caption]
Early Wednesday morning, way out there in the small town of Punxsutawney, a portly aging man in top hat and tails will unceremoniously yank a grumpy groundhog from his winter den and present it to a roaring crowd numbering in the tens of thousands. The man then will whisper to the groundhog in a secret, shared language, what he calls “Groundhogese”…
And, for the 136th year since 1886, Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous rodent besides a…
The First Thanksgiving Menu: Venison, Lobster, and… Passenger Pigeons?
November 22, 2021[caption id="attachment_273481" align="aligncenter" width="470"] The versatile and colorful Indian corn, widely used among Native Americans for porridge, bread, and more, was likely consumed during the 1621 Thanksgiving feast. Turkey, however, might not have been.[/caption]
As we gather with family for Thanksgiving feasts this week, it will be especially poignant, as for many families (like my own), this is the first live Thanksgiving dinner in two very long years.
Most likely a turkey will occupy a place of honor in your feast; for me, the reveal of the roasted turkey on a platter is the singular moment of the day. For…
The Lenape and the Land
November 1, 2021[caption id="attachment_273318" align="aligncenter" width="650"] A typical Lenape village, with wigwams, the Lenape name for their homes.[/caption]
Pennsylvania school kids are still mistakenly taught that our state’s history begins in 1681 with William Penn and the naming of our state, Penn’s Woods. Of course, the land already had a name, Lenapehoking, and it was hardly new: for some 10,000 years before William Penn, the Lenape inhabited Lenapehoking.
On Thursday evening, November 4 at 7:00 p.m., in celebration of Native American Heritage Month, we will present “The Lenape and the Land,” a free virtual conversation among three members of the Lenape Nation…
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