Ragamuffin parade facts for kids
A Ragamuffin parade is a special event held every year in communities around New York City. These parades feature children dressed in their Halloween costumes. They usually happen in October or right on Halloween. The idea for these parades started around 1870. This was a few years after US President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday.
The parades grew out of something called Ragamuffin Day. This was a Thanksgiving tradition where children would go door-to-door. They would ask for candy, dressed like beggars or homeless people from New York. Ragamuffin Day was like an early version of Halloween. Halloween itself became really popular in the 1940s and 1950s.
The History of Ragamuffin Fun
How Ragamuffin Day Began
Ragamuffin Day started around 1870. It was a few years after President Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday. Ragamuffin Day took place on Thanksgiving. Children would go from house to house asking for candy or money. This tradition was similar to what "mummers" did in Europe a long time ago.
At first, these children dressed up like the homeless people of New York. They wore rags and clothes that looked too big, like beggars. In later years, kids started dressing as sailors, bandits, or even popular Disney characters. By the 1930s, the begging part of the tradition changed. It became more about Ragamuffin parades, which were early versions of the big Thanksgiving Day parades we see today.
After the Great Depression, Halloween became very popular. Because of this, Ragamuffin events became less common. However, children still kept some of the traditions going into the 1940s.
Around 1930, a newspaper called The New York Times wrote several articles. They wanted to stop the Ragamuffin tradition. The newspaper said that children would "annoy adults" on Thanksgiving Day by asking for candy, money, and gifts. Later that year, the newspaper reported that these parades were rare in New York City. They were mostly found in the outer areas, where the subway lines ended.
By 1937, some groups started hosting Thanksgiving Day parades. They hoped this would make Ragamuffin Day less popular. These new Thanksgiving parades also featured children dressed as beggars and in Halloween costumes. In the 1940s, some of these parades had about 500 children taking part. The last known Thanksgiving Day Ragamuffin parade happened in 1956. By then, the much larger Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade had become more famous.
A Ragamuffin parade held on October 15, 1972, in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, was huge. About 6,000 children joined in, and around 35,000 people came to watch. This made it the biggest Ragamuffin parade in the United States at that time.
Ragamuffin Parades Today
Ragamuffin parades continued in the outer parts of New York City. They became less popular in Manhattan, the main island. These parades are still held in several areas today. This includes Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where they have been happening since 1966. You can also find them in Park Ridge, New Jersey, and in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Other communities that host these parades are in Westchester County, New York. These include Pleasantville and Briarcliff Manor. The parade in Briarcliff Manor has been held for about 30 years.
In September 2016, a street in Bay Ridge was given a new name: "Ragamuffin Way." This was done to honor the neighborhood's 50-year-old tradition of the Ragamuffin parade.
