This weekend marks the 250th anniversary of the oldest ongoing patriotic commemoration in American history - Forefathers Day. Three hundred and ninety-nine years ago today, December 21, 1620, the Mayflower Pilgrims arrived in Plymouth Harbor and stepped foot on the now iconic rock. Notably, this year’s Forefathers Day occurs just weeks before the advent of the 400th anniversary year of the arrival of the men and women who would shape the course of freedom for a future nation.
Over the last two hundred and fifty years, Forefathers Day has marked an occasion to highlight the great tradition of civil and religious liberty under God, bequeathed to our nation by the Mayflower Pilgrims. Celebrants have included dignitaries and past presidents of the United States. The event has been marked by feasting, games, toasts, poetry, speeches and even great orchestral compositions like the symphonic work of Charles Ives to New England Holidays: Thanksgiving and Forefathers Day (1904).
At the Leyden Preservation Group, we honor that great tradition and the history of Plot #1, established in the days after the landing, where the Pilgrims weathered the first winter, signed the great peace treaty with the Wampanoag, and exercised the first votes of common suffrage in defense of liberty.
About The Date
Forefathers Day was first introduced in 1769 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and today is celebrated on December 22, unless it falls on a Sunday (which it does this year), in which case December 23 is Forefathers Day.
In 1769, during the controversial decade leading up to the War of Independence, a group of patriots and loyalists founded what would become the oldest gentleman’s club in the USA, The Old Colony Club, and proclaimed Forefathers Day to “honor the forefathers.”
The official anniversary date of December 22 (instead of December 21) is a bit of an accident that occurred when the date was adjusted to the Gregorian calendar. The Mayflower Pilgrims actually landed on December 16, but the new calendar added 6 days.
Celebrate Monday Morning
If you are in Plymouth on Monday morning at 6:00 AM, join us as we honor the traditions of the Old Colony Club by following their march up Cole’s Hill next to the statue of the great sachem Massasoit, followed by special readings and a ritual firing of the club’s cannon. This year’s tradition of both the Old Colony Club and the Mayflower Society includes a succotash dinner.