Tactical drills, military exercises and role-playing demonstrations salute America during the Fourth of July holiday weekend. Visitors can learn about the sacrifices of our nation's founders, including those who signed the Declaration of Independence. More

As part of the "Jamestown and Bermuda: Virginia Company Colonies" Lecture Series, University of Rochester Associate Professor of History Michael Jarvis, who received his Ph.D. from the College of William and Mary and has written about Bermuda and Virginia history in several publications, will present “Sister Colonies: Virginia, Bermuda, and the Beginnings of English America.”  He will discuss how cross-cultural influences shaped a distinctly new culture and, through characterizations of Bermuda as a “finite” space and Virginia as an “infinite” space, consider how these qualities shaped settlement pace and patterns into the 1620s.  The free public lecture begins at 7 p.m.; reservations required at (757) 253-4415 or rsvp.lecture@jyf.virginia.gov.

Games, storytelling and other diversions of 17th- and 18th-century Virginia are shown through hands-on activities and interpretive programs. Visitors can play corncob darts, ninepins, quoits, mancala and nine-men's morris.

As part of the "Jamestown and Bermuda: Virginia Company Colonies" Lecture Series, Founding and Creative Director Tom Butterfield of the Masterworks Foundation and Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art, in “Somewhere Beyond the Sea: Art, Artists, and Bermuda,” will explain why artists like Winslow Homer and Georgia O’Keeffe have been drawn to Bermuda and provide an overview of Bermudian art.  His quest to identify and recognize Bermudian artists – famous as well as lesser known – led to the creation of the Masterworks Foundation and Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art.  The free public lecture begins at 7 p.m.; reservations required at (757) 253-4415 or rsvp.lecture@jyf.virginia.gov.

A festive day of 17th-century games, music, juggling, stilt walking, magic, puppet shows, storytelling and hands-on crafts.

Military life and artillery demonstrations mark the 228th anniversary of America’s momentous Revolutionary War victory at Yorktown, on October 19, 1781. To experience Continental Army life firsthand, visitors can enroll in “A School for the Soldier” to drill with wooden muskets and apply tactical skills in mock combat, as well as learn about soldiers’ provisions and sleeping quarters.  Special programs also are held in Yorktown and at Yorktown Battlefield, administered by the National Park Service.

Virginia foodways are featured during this three-day event beginning on Thanksgiving Day. At Jamestown Settlement, learn how food was gathered, preserved and prepared on land and at sea by Virginia’s English colonists and Powhatan Indians. At the Yorktown Victory Center, learn about typical soldiers’ fare during the American Revolution and trace the bounty of a 1780s farm from field to kitchen.

Holiday traditions of 17th- and 18th-century Virginia are recalled through special interpretive programs. At Jamestown Settlement, a film and guided tours compare and contrast English Christmas customs of the period with how the season may have been observed in the difficult early years of the Jamestown colony. At the Yorktown Victory Center, hear accounts of Christmas and winter in military encampments during the American Revolution and glimpse holiday preparations on a 1780s Virginia farm.