Lexington’s annual tea burning reenactment in photos

Hundreds of spectators gathered outside Buckman Tavern on Saturday, clad in winter coats and fluffy scarves in nearly freezing temperatures, to witness the Historical Society’s reenactment of Town Meeting’s 1773 tea burning.

To kick off the reenactment, the Minute Men, a group of people who reenact the events leading up to the American Revolution, replicated how the original group would practice military drills for the looming war on the Battle Green. Next, the local Scouts built a bonfire outside Buckman Tavern to prepare for the tea burning. Then, the William Diamond Fife and Drum Corps descended on the lawn where the bonfire burned from just outside Buckman Tavern, playing traditional drum and fife music. Finally, the reenactment of Town Meeting declaring Lexington’s resolution to burn its tea supply commenced, and spectators were given handfuls of tea leaves from ​​Mark T. Wendell Tea Company, an Acton-based tea company, to toss into the fire. 

Saturday’s events commemorate what happened in town three days before the Boston Tea Party — on Dec. 13, 1773, Lexington’s Town Meeting concluded a days-long session by deciding to stop buying or drinking British tea, according to the Historical Society. After its session ended, Town Meeting members congregated behind the meeting house and burned the town’s supply of tea in a bonfire.