There is a whole lotta shakin' goin' on in Canterbury, NH. And seemingly, always has been. If you drive around this scenic rural New Hampshire village -- imagine that, a rural village in New Hampshire! -- you'll be struck first by the fact that you're in rugged farm country. Actually, you'll likely be struck first by some tractor-trailer on Route 106 if you're not careful, but the point is that it will become rapidly apparent that not only are you not in the city anymore, but you're also not in some quaint, cozy ski resort mountain village either. The folks in Canterbury take the rural lifestyle the same way others take their coffee: black, bitter and with no questions asked. Now, that said, Canterbury has an active artist community, more in the way of craftsmen than moose poop refrigerator magnet makers. (Though that reminds me; Christmas is coming soon. I'll have to find that moose poop lady again.) Canterbury each year hosts a craftsmen show with wood carvers, black smiths, glass blowers, basket weavers and other lost arts of the rough-hewn 19th century. New Hampshire in general is home to more than its fair share of such artists, but this artist community is a bit different; many of these local artists learned from the masters.
By the masters, I mean of course the Shakers. The Shakers were a religious community who came from England in the mid-18th century and settled initially in New York state, but eventually also set up a community in Canterbury, NH in the 1790s, one of many such Shaker communities established across the U.S. over the next century. Canterbury was one of the biggest settlements, however, and thrived for almost 200 years until the last resident Shaker died in 1990. The Shakers were called 'Shakers' by Americans simply because it was close to 'Quakers', and from the American revolutionaries' perspective, both the Quakers and Shakers had an annoying trait that really irritated the Patriots: both the Shakers and Quakers were pacifists, meaning they didn't take up arms to fight for the Revolution in 1775-1783. Still, eventually the Patriots got over it, and the Shakers established commune-style communities where everything was shared: the living quarters (segregated by male and female, of course), the work, meals, etc. This communal living actually proved quite successful for much of Canterbury village's two centuries, and the Shakers attracted many who were destitute or down on their luck in the nearby communities, and Shaker schools were renowned so that local farmers often paid to have their non-Shaker children educated by the Canterbury Shaker community. It was only the rise of modern life in the 20th century that finally undermined the attractiveness of Shaker life.
The one hitch that scared many away from Shaker life was, well, the celibacy thing. There's a long story behind this but essentially the Shakers rejected any and all forms of sex, even for pro-creation. They survived for 200 years by attracting converts. Men and women lived in strict seclusion in the Shaker commune. That's enough to make the most down-on-his-luck homeless vagrant hesitate before signing on the dotted line. Nonetheless, personal lifestyle choices aside, the Shakers survived by becoming very adept at making excellent quality goods (such as the famous Shaker furniture) and craftwares, which became very popular among Americans in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the mid-20th century as it became apparent that the Canterbury Shaker community was fading, many of the local Shakers took on apprentices from outside the community from the surrounding towns and taught them the Shaker craft arts, so that today these still survive in the local Canterbury artist community. The Canterbury Shaker Village survives as a museum today, one very well worth your visit, both to see an excellently-preserved Shaker commune but as well to enjoy the beautiful rolling hills of Canterbury, NH.
Now, when I first visited the Canterbury Shaker Village Museum a few summers ago, to my astonishment, there was a whole lot of shakin' and quakin' goin' on, and it wasn't the ghosts of Shakers long past recreating the elaborate dance rituals in the Shaker Meeting House. We were standing in the herbal gardens on the downward slope of the hill not far from the living quarters, when suddenly the ground started rumbling and shaking. The hills around us joined suit, and soon the whole world felt like one of those cheap motel shaking beds. As it turned out, just a few miles away in nearby Loudon, NH there happened to be the New Hampshire Motor Speedway which hosts twice each year NASCAR races. We just happened to be visiting on one of those days. My first thought was that it was a good thing the Shakers were long gone, because they no doubt would have been horrified by NASCAR races, but then I remembered that the Shakers were not Amish; the Shakers embraced technology, and owned TVs and radios in the 20th century. They might very well have piled into a bus and headed over to Loudon to join in the fun.....
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