Costumed colonial re-enactors marched through the streets led by a fife and drum corps on their way to dump hundreds of pounds of tea into the Fort Point Channel to commemorate the insurgent revolutionary protest of 1773.
A new element for this year — the 244th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party — is that participants heaved into the harbor boxes filled in part with 220 pounds of tea donated from London’s East India Co. — which was originally tossed into the harbor.
Also this year, loose-leaf tea for the re-enactment was sent in by 200 people across the country, along with letters for the event.
The letters came from schools learning about the Boston Tea Party, descendants of the Boston Tea Party participants and families wanting to honor their loved ones, including a woman from Watertown who sent tea her father-in-law had brought back from Asia after World War II.
The festivities began with Colonial re-enactors gathering at the Old South Meeting House to debate protesting the British Tea Act, which levied hefty tariffs on tea for colonists when they had no representation in the British government.
A fife and drum corps then led the colonists and crowds through the streets to the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum on Congress Street, along the same route the Sons of Liberty took to the historical Griffin’s Wharf to destroy the British tea.
There, the Sons of Liberty boarded the Brig Beaver and dumped chests of the East India tea to shouts of “Huzzah!”
To mark the occasion, bars and restaurants are offering tea-inspired cocktails and dinner packages through the rest of the month.
