And what do Antique Tractor Pulls, Block Parties, Card Parties, Fireworks, Car Shows, Parades, Wrestling and Pet Shows have in common with Tea?

The answer is, the Trenton Tennessee Teapot Festival.  This year’s annual week-long festival will begin on April 26th. And the list of events for every day fills the entire week. And all of the above events are combined with what we would more commonly think of as tea-themed offerings. There’s an Alice In Wonderland Tea Party and a special Lighting of the Teapots ceremony. There will be a most beautiful and most unusual teapot contest. But, in the Spirit of Tea theme for this blog, Trenton’s festival points to one of the most spiritual qualities of tea. Tea has a way of becoming part of our own culture. What impresses me is the way in which the citizens of Trenton have blended the elements of rural Tennessee life with the historic qualities of tea. The charms of a children’s float decorated with “Wild about Uni-Tea”, a parade entertainer outfitted as a little red teapot and a car sporting a sign, “It’s Tea Time - Let’s Par-Tea” seem wonderfully infused with the tractors, fire engines and convertibles gliding down the main street of town.

And the Teapot Trot is one of the health events - a run through town. 

At a recent gathering of tea people, Norwood Pratt borrowed the lyrics of a song, “Everything old is new again. . .” to talk about tea. At the Trenton Teapot Festival, the ancient traditions of tea find a new format. I would not say that it defines tea in the US. But it does make the social and health aspects its own in ways that bring people together. The old ways from China and Japan and other tea cultures around the world are scarce here. But there is no shortage of creativity. . . . as the old becomes new.

Unity In the Communi-Tea

Festival organizers chose a theme, “Uni-tea In The Community”.  And, in the great tradition of parades, every school band, every public service organization and many local businesses all picked up the teapot theme, decorated their vehicles and celebrated with tea. They’ve been doing this for 29 years and all indications point to this continuing for many more.

Tthe town leaders created the festival in the early 1980’s. The inspiration for the annual festival is The World’s Largest Collection of Porcelain Veilluse-Theieres teapots;  525 teapots dating from 1750 - 1860 form a permanent collection housed in a museum at the Trenton Municipal Building.

The collection was created by Trenton resident, Dr. Frederick Freed and given to the city in 1955. And part of the festival includes tea in the museum with the rare teapot display.

One of the events that caught my attention is the annual lighting of the teapots. On the right is a photograph of this ceremony.  It is a significant part of the history of these lovely teapots to light them. They were known as food warmers in the pre-electrified and pre-microwave era. Long before the warmers supported teapots, the  Veilluse-Theieres porcelaines supported bowls of soup and porridge. The set of teapot and warmer bases are incorporated as one piece.

Tea Festivals

Having recently returned from the Victoria Tea Festival, the idea of city festivals, each unique in planning and design to the local community is of special interest. Imagine tea festivals dotting the maps! But as I check the calendar, I realize that the weekend actually conflicts with another kind of tea festival. World Tea Expo.

I’ve come to think of Expo as a festival; a celebration. I exhibit - yes - and therefore I have a commercial interest. But being an attendee; participating in the classes and events, having a hands-on experience with new products and meeting old friends is always a top priority. I once told George Jage that Expo was like a theme park for me. And the last time I tallied up the expenses for a weekend with the kids at Disneyland, it made three days in Tea Land look like a bargain. We have our parade of new products and hoofing it around the showroom floor can compare with Trenton’s Teapot Trot. What we lack in antique teapots is balanced by teapots and teas in the hundreds of vendor booths.

Alas, we don’t crown a royal tea court. Our competition is between the teas and we have hundreds in the running for this year’s best-of-shows all being packaged now for us to taste at our own kind of festival.

One of these years very soon I’ll be in Trenton for their annual week of tea. I believe the Spirit of Tea is comfortably in residence there.

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