This Black holiday predates Juneteenth
Cheyney McKnight waited years to celebrate Pinkster.
On a scorching Saturday morning in May, McKnight put on her tailor-made 18th-century Malian mud cloth dress and trekked 7 miles with a dozen others to partake in a storied tradition.
The group rattled shell shakers and tambourines and beat drums, strolling New York City sidewalks from an old farmhouse near the top of Manhattan to the New-York Historical Society, recreating a route free and enslaved Black people would have traveled in colonial times on Pinkster, the Dutch word for the Christian celebration of "Pentecost."
The festival, which falls in May or June, began in the 1700s as a way for enslaved people in the region to escape isolation for a few days, promising joy, connection and dignity.
Pinkster predates Juneteenth, the federal holiday next week that honors the end of enslavement in Galveston, Texas. Now, some lawmakers in New York want to codify Pinkster as an official day of commemoration alongside Juneteenth, hoping official recognition will expand understanding and appreciation for Black life in America.