Hancock has canceled most of its Old Home Day traditions due to COVID-19, but the Old Home Day Committee is encouraging longtime participants to share their memories of past years’ celebrations in order to hold a virtual event and maintain the town celebration, which has been going on since 1881.
The town wouldn’t have access to indoor facilities for an event since the church and vestry are closed through at least Labor Day, Select Board Chair Laurie Bryan said, and all the traditional activities, like the Run for the Honey and the book sale are canceled. The Fire Department’s chicken barbecue is canceled but may be rescheduled, Chief Tom Bates said.
According to “The Second Hundred Years of Hancock, New Hampshire,” the Old Home Day celebration began in 1881 when John Symonds organized a family picnic on Norway Pond, Hancock Historical Society member Ruth Wilder said. “As more people attended each year, the occasion became a town reunion and eventually replaced the town fair,” she said. Hancock’s Old Home Day has been touted as the longest continuously-held Old Home Day in the state, she said, but it would require going through the last 138 years of town reports to verify the claim. Although the August tradition predates the Spanish Flu of 1918, there are no precedents for Hancock to fall back on, Bryan said: that flu didn’t come to town until the fall.
Participants can share their memories of previous Old Home Days by contacting Town Administrator Jonathan Coyne at townadmin@hancocknh.org or at 535-4441.