So read the headline of the New York Times on November 27, 1914. But the article isn’t referring to hungry poor people looking for a handout.
It’s actually about an old Thanksgiving Day tradition popular in the late 19th and early 20th century, when children would dress up as cowboys, Indians, or “ragamuffins” and go door to door asking neighbors, “anything for Thanksgiving?”
As this second article, published in the Times in 1907, makes clear, the ragamuffins were regarded as quite a nuisance. Some neighborhoods scheduled loosely organized ragamuffin parades (Bay Ridge still has one; it’s held earlier in the fall), but it appears that most of the time, kids were on their own. They went out in groups—asking for pennies, playing practical jokes, and of course, getting into fights.
The ragamuffin tradition supposedly came from Europe, where it was customary to symbolically beg on holidays. I don’t know if this is true, but it seems that at some point begging on Thanksgiving turned into trick or treating on Halloween. And another strange old New York custom was lost to the ages.
Tags: begging on Thanksgiving, dressing up on Thanksgiving, Old New York traditions, ragamuffin parade
November 27, 2008 at 7:28 am |
My mom, who grew up in Queens in the ’30s, used to tell me about this weird tradition, replete with the sing-song refrain (“AN-y-THING-for-Thanks-GIV-in’”) and it seemed rather surreal to me. It’s interesting to read about its origins–and to see that she wasn’t making this up!
November 27, 2008 at 1:27 pm |
This is fabulously well-written, incisive stuff. I enjoy your blog every single day. Many things I know about, but many I do not, and it all just helps me weave another strand in the warm blanket of Gotham lore in which I cloak myself so well.
It seems we were separated at birth, lol. Get in touch if you’d like to further the acquaintance and share stuff outside of the blogosphere.
Ben Feldman
November 27, 2008 at 8:09 pm |
My Dad who was born in 1929 in Brooklyn told me recently about this unusual custom. I must say, I thought he must have been mistaken…maybe a little senility creeping in! Glad to see he wasn’t confused at all.
November 28, 2008 at 8:07 am |
I feel like I heard of this in St. Louis, too, when I was a little, tiny child. No idea where I would’ve heard it, though.
My wife and I live in Bay Ridge now and had been puzzled by the Ragamuffin Parade thing. Thanks for clearing that up.
Nice blog, by the way. I enjoy it.
November 28, 2008 at 6:14 pm |
Thank you. I didn’t know the ragamuffin-Thanksgiving thing happened in other cities. Too bad strange little traditions like these die out.
December 2, 2008 at 3:50 pm |
Ya gotta love a headline with the word “ragamuffin” in it.
December 5, 2008 at 9:05 pm |
Love your blog and love the article. Just for your interest, I wrote an item for the Gowanus Lounge under “Urban Environmentalist NYC” the day before (November 26, 2008) on the very same thing! I guess great minds think alike. I participated in the practice myself as a child and a photo of me in my “ragamuffin” outfit is in the article. I submit a n article on Brooklyn history to GL about every two weeks.
Urban Environmentalist NYC: Thanksgiving History Revealed [GL] http://www.gowanuslounge.com/2008/11/26/urban-environmentalist-nyc-thanksgiving-history-revealed/#more-12202
Ben Feldman, are you the author of “Butchery on Bond Street”? I met you at the dedication of Dr. Harvey Burdell’s and Emma Cunningham’s monuments at Green-Wood. Very much enjoyed your book.
Ruth Edebohls
Center for the Urban Environment
August 3, 2009 at 10:47 pm |
Many thanks, Ruth. Yes it is I
And I have a new book just out: “Call Me Daddy – Babes and Bathos in Edward West Browning’s Jazz Age New York.” Take a look at its website at
http://www.edwardwestbrowning.blogspot.com
Best regards,
Ben Feldman
December 5, 2008 at 9:16 pm |
Thank you for writing and including that Gowanus Lounge link–somehow I missed it. The photos and more detailed information are fascinating.
You’ve also reminded me that I need to reread A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, because I don’t remember the part about Francie wearing a mask! What a great book.
December 20, 2008 at 11:57 pm |
Yes, Ms. Edebohls, I am one and the same Ben Feldman. Thank you for your interest in my first book. Another is coming out soon: see http://www.edwardwestbrowning.blogspot.com for the details
March 10, 2009 at 8:10 pm |
I was born after WWII and in our old neighborhood in Brooklyn which is now called Windsor Terrace we still went around the neighborhood, dressed in costumes, knocking on doors and shouting ‘anything for Thanksgiving?’ When I was a few years older we moved to what is now the Kensington section of Brooklyn (really just a mile or so away-shows you how insulated neighborhoods were) where no-one had heard of the custom. We had to learn to ‘trick or treat’ instead!
October 24, 2009 at 4:56 pm |
I was born in 1942 and grew up in North Bergen N.J.we went begging on Thanksgiving until around 1951. When I tell people this they don’t believe me. Thank you
November 26, 2009 at 12:59 am |
I was born in 1943 also in North Bergen (Hudson County) NJ, and I remember my friends and I were begging in the “Race Track” neighborhood in the early to mid-50s. Then it stopped and dropped out of my memory, or I blended it into Halloween. This year it popped out again, so I thought I’d google to see if I was right. I’m fascinated by the fact that this was such a localized custom, which must have come from certain immigrant ethnic groups. I am Italian as was my neighborhood, but I don’t believe it’s an Italian custom — probably Central European origin.
November 12, 2010 at 7:52 am |
I HAVE TOLD MY WIFE AND CHILDREN ABOUT BEGGARS DAY AND THEY TOLD ME IT WAS IN MY IMAGINATION. FOR YEARS I HAVE TRIED TO FIND INFORMATION ABOUT IT – ON THANKSGIVING DAY WE DRESSED IN RAGS AND RANG THE DOORBELLS OF OUR NEIGHBORS AND SAID “ANYTHING FOR THANKSGIVING?” THANKS FOR PROVING ME RIGHT.
May 18, 2012 at 11:51 pm |
My husband was born in 1943 and grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. When he told me he went door-to-door on Thanksgiving saying “anything for Thanksgiving”, I couldn’t imagine what his grandfather would have said if he was caught! This was in the 1950′s. He also said he never went trick or treating on Halloween – that was mischief day. The most he made was $35 — a fortune when the movies cost $.25. Now I know he was telling the truth!
May 19, 2012 at 12:58 am |
I love stories like these—thanks for writing in!
October 10, 2012 at 9:06 pm |
I was born in Bay Ridge in 1940. My older male cousins used to black their faces with burned cork, don their shabbiest clothes, and then go out begging. I could hardly wait to grow and to go out with them, but my mother never let me do so.
Do you think NY begging is connected to the English Guy Fawkes Day which is in early November?
Do you remember, every autumn, the appearance of Charlotte Russe in paper cups?
November 22, 2012 at 2:13 am |
Born in 1943, I went begging on Prospect Place (now called Bed/Sty) till age 10. Then I moved to Brooklyn Heights and no longer begged. We didn’t dress up, just knocked on apartment doors.