FAQs and Themes
The overall theme for this three-year commemoration is a Campaign of Learning on the establishment of the first multicultural city in America. Our objective is to inspire interested parties to research this formative time period and understand our past, celebrate the present and aim to unify the future.
What is New York 400th?
As the 400th anniversary of the establishment of the City of New York nears, there are societies of descendants who have come together to celebrate the long legacy of our forefathers. We have come together as one to embark on a series of events to commemorate our past, celebrate the present and aim to unify the future.
Who is leading this Unity celebration?
We are framing ourselves as the unity team. Not one organization or group is solely responsible for the establishment of New York, many came together and formed as one. For the purpose of this project, the unity teams consists of the; Holland Society of New York, Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York, and Society of The First Families of New York. All of us represent a portion of the first Europeans who arrived in today’s New York. We are actively looking for descendants of Manuel de Gerrit de Reus, Sijmon Congo, and Paulo Angola, as well as Munsee Lenape and Wappinger tribes.
Why now?
Was there not a New York 400th event earlier? The NY400: Holland on the Hudson was the 2009 commemoration of the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s 1609 expedition up the river bearing his name, that later provided the basis for the founding of New Netherland. The peak of activity in New York City was NY400 Week, September 8-13.
The New York 400th Unity Celebration spans across three years to highlight three key events which brought the original people, Europeans, and enslaved people together in economic enterprise in today’s New York.
What is the vision for NY400th?
A Celebration of Unity of the founding of New York, 400 years ago. The establishment of New York belongs to many, and that is what we aim to celebrate, how many different groups came together and became New Yorkers.