Thanksgiving Traditions in New York City

Thanksgiving Traditions in New York City

Here are some unique Thanksgiving traditions that started in the streets of New York…

On November 25, 1783, British forces finally left New York City after the Revolutionary War.  Known as Evacuation Day, November 25th was celebrated each year around Thanksgiving with costumes, parties, and parades in the streets. In fact, Evacuation Day was a major holiday in New York until 1888, so it was a popular Thanksgiving tradition for decades.

Nobody really knows the connection to Evacuation Day, but at some point men known as “The Fantasticals” started dressing up in crazy costumes and parading through New York City around Thanksgiving. A few historians say The Fantasticals were somehow related to Guy Fawkes Day (celebrated in England on November 5th) but nobody knows for sure. Just another eccentric Thanksgiving tradition that stuck around for years. 

Then, sometime around 1870, kids started dressing up in costumes and roaming the streets. Instead of the “Trick or Treat?” that we hear at Halloween, kids could be heard saying, “Please mister, a penny or a nickel for Thanksgiving?” It came to be known as Ragamuffin Day.

How did begging start as a Thanksgiving tradition? Well, it’s thought that New Yorkers somehow combined Evacuation Day street parties with an old, New England, Thanksgiving custom. A New York Times article in 1893 explained:

In an old book descriptive of New England characters and customs one reads that on Thanksgiving eve it was the custom of the poorer people, servants and dependents to go to the houses of the rich to ask for substantials to help celebrate the coming feast day. And the richer people felt it incumbent on their dignity and hospitality not to allow any one to go away from their doors empty handed.”

So, in New York City, Thanksgiving, kids, costumes and begging all combined into one street tradition known as Ragamuffin Day. By the 1880s and 1890s, more and more children took to the streets dressed as ragamuffins, but along the way, they added Pilgrims, Indians, Uncle Sam’s, and other characters to the mix. By the beginning of the 20th century, New York City was crowded on Thanksgiving Day with rowdy, costumed, begging children. 

The New York Times again described the scene:

…from early morning to late evening thousands of children roamed in ragamuffin costume, blowing horns, throwing harmless missiles and playing at begging. The practice of dressing up as ragamuffins seems to be growing among the city children each Thanksgiving Day, and the parents of many seem to take an interest in the displays, judging by the great variety in fantastic costumes which the children wear.”

In 1925, the Madison Square Boys Club held the first of what became an annual Thanksgiving Day parade to protest children begging for money. The boys carried banners reading, “American Boys Don’t Beg.” This was the beginning of the end for Ragamuffin Day. After the stock market crash of 1929, money became tight for everyone. Then, through the 1930s, New York City schools and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children openly discouraged kids from Thanksgiving begging. 

The Boys Club also threw a Thanksgiving party to keep kids off the streets, where they offered a turkey prize to the child with the best costume.  Finally, Mayor LaGuardia imposed a ban on all begging (panhandling) in New York City, which included children on Thanksgiving Day. Despite some holdouts, the tradition died a little more each year, until Ragamuffin Day disappeared into history by the beginning of World War II.

Thanksgiving Traditions in New York City