Hudson-Fulton Celebration began 106 years ago this week. Starting on September 25, 1909, over a million New Yorkers and tourists enthusiastically joined in the two-week festivities to commemorate the tricentennial of Henry Hudson’s discovery of the river that now bears his name and the centennial of Robert Fulton’s invention of the steamboat. An exclusive committee…

By day, Zhi hen Li is an Accountant here at the New-York Historical Society. But, by night, he’s a lion dancer. The Lion Dance is a Chinese tradition and a vital component of Chinese New Year celebrations. As a lion dancer, Zhi wears intricate and colorful lion costumes and mimic the majestic cat in movement….

My plan for this Independence Day involves hot dogs, hanging out on my friend’s balcony, and watching the fireworks on the East River. I think it’s a pretty good way to spend my day, but New Yorkers have been celebrating with parades, beaches and parties since we pulled down that statue of King George. Some…

Tomorrow is the 150th anniversary of Thanksgiving becoming a national holiday, thanks to Abraham Lincoln. But for the first time since 1888, the holiday will coincide with the first day of Hanukkah. So celebrate now, because this is not going to happen for another 70,000 years (give or take). The above Hanukkah lamp, or Hanukkiot, was…

Who’s ready for the St. Patrick’s Day parade?  New York City has longstanding Irish heritage, with the first known reference to any celebration of St. Patrick’s Day found in a 1756 issue of the New-York Post-Boy. The first reference to a parade was in a March 1766 New York Gazette. Then, homesick Irishmen serving in the British…

Thanksgiving may have been celebrated by Pilgrims and Native Americans in New England with feasts of corn and eel (yes, eel), but it wasn’t until 1863 that it became a truly American holiday. Sarah Josepha Hale, author of the famous rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” was the first to suggest that Thanksgiving should be celebrated nationwide,…