Now more than two and a half centuries in the past, the Boston Tea Party nevertheless still resonates today with its benchmark status as one of the defining events leading up the American Revolution. On December 16, celebrate this historic reckoning with the 251st Anniversary Commemoration, which begins at the Old South Meeting House with the annual ticketed re-enactment of the debate that led up to the fateful protest. Enjoy free performances by the Middlesex County 4-H Fife & Drum Corps around Downtown before heading inside at 6:15 p.m., when costumed actors portraying patriots such as Samuel Adams, John Hancock and Paul Revere take the stage to argue over the unfair policies of British rule. The crowd can also get in on the action, taking the side of the patriots or loyalists to the crown, just as the masses did before heading to the waterfront to dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston Harbor in that pivotal year of 1773.
