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A little late, but added a new article on the real Thanksgiving by guest contributor Dr. Margaret O'Shaughnessey…it wasn't what you were taught...

On Saturday, December the 4th 2010, Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site held its annual Iron Plantation Christmas. Today the furnace was quiet prior to the Christmas Holidays. However, during Christmas when the furnace was operating in the nineteenth century, Christmas was just another work day. Hopewell Village was a small self-sustaining village in colonial times which was built around a cold-blast, charcoal-burning iron furnace. The community life was in some respects similar to that of the small feudal manors of medieval Europe and was largely self-sustaining. Little had changed of the village from colonial times up through most of the nineteenth century.

East Berlin, Pennsylvania held their Annual Christmas House Tour on December 12, 2010. A little bit of rain did not dampen the holiday spirits of the people who paid $12 to tour the homes, church, and buildings owned by the East Berlin Historical Preservation Society. East Berlin has its share of colonial home open to the public along with a Victorian Bed and Breakfast.

We know this 4th of July you are with your friends and family either at the beach or lake swimming, getting on rides at a local amusement park, watching a parade, watching fireworks during the night, or eating at a picnic with relatives. Most likely you are not be giving a second thought of how the colonists celebrated the day of Independence. We all realize it is the birth of our freedom as a nation. We want to share with you a portion of writings on how the 4th of July shaped our American character and heritage.

The sale of the reward of merit fraktur at Pook and Pook completed by schoolmaster Johann Conrad Gilbert (1734-1812) who emigrated from Germany in 1757 and settled in Montgomery County Pennsylvania may have sparked an interest to our readers as to how the bunny or rabbit became an indelible symbol of Easter in colonial America. As it turns out so many times you must thank the Pennsylvania Dutch for this great contribution to our country. These are the German immigrants like Heinrich Gudehus who emigrated from Palatinate, Germany in the eighteenth century.