{"id":101091,"date":"2024-11-18T11:04:58","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T16:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=101091"},"modified":"2024-11-22T14:17:59","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T19:17:59","slug":"amusements-for-the-giddy-thanksgiving-celebrations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/amusements-for-the-giddy-thanksgiving-celebrations.html","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Amusements for the Giddy\u2019 Thanksgiving Celebrations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, James Pylant will surprise you with the giddy revelry that our ancestors once enjoyed in celebrating Thanksgiving. James is an editor at GenealogyMagazine.com and author for JacobusBooks.com, is an award-winning historical true-crime writer, and authorized celebrity biographer.<\/em><\/p>\n

On 24 November 1904, the Colorado Springs Gazette<\/em> announced:<\/p>\n

Not a person, not a stranger in the city, nor a man, woman or child unable to secure a Thanksgiving dinner from their own resources, need go hungry today.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Colorado Springs Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colorado), 24 November 1904, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example, with turkey, chicken, roast beef, pork and beans, pies, cakes, and cranberry sauce, the People\u2019s Mission in Colorado City expected to feed more than 500 people.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how we often envision our ancestors commemorating the November holiday: opening their hearts and homes to friends and family for a traditional dinner. President George Washington recognized Thanksgiving by proclamation in 1789, but it was not a federal holiday until 1885; by congressional act in 1942, it was designated as the fourth Thursday in November.<\/p>\n

In 1863, more than 20 years before it became a federal holiday, President Abraham Lincoln asked Americans to recognize a national day of thanksgiving, \u201cwith humble penitence.\u201d However, that\u2019s not how our ancestors always observed the holiday.<\/p>\n

On Thanksgiving Day in 1874, residents of Jersey City, New Jersey, were greeted with the sound of church bells ringing as they soberly made their way into houses of worship for special holiday sermons. But afterward things changed rather suddenly.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Jersey Journal (Jersey City, New Jersey), 27 November 1874, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reports:<\/p>\n

A little later and the warlike drum, energetically beaten by the hands of a small boy, whose skillet-helmeted head struck terror into admiring throngs of little ones, woke up the remainder of the population and the day\u2019s business commenced in earnest. A mania for cast-off clothing, which had done duty on the female form divine, seemed to have universally seized the boys. In every section of the city they appeared, tricked out in old bonnets, old skirts, hoop skirts without any other attempt at ornamentation, and all masked in hideous pasteboard \u201cfalse faces.\u201d They marched in troops, with beating drums and flying flags, and assaulted every open store with a demand for \u201cprizes,\u201d and they got them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: Thanksgiving maskers, c. 1910. Credit: George Grantham Bain Collection; Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u201cThanksgiving maskers,\u201d as they were called, were not exclusive to Jersey City, as explained by a New Orleans newspaper in 1872. It\u2019s little wonder that the city that hosts Mardi Gras approved of this Thanksgiving revelry.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Times-Picayune (New Orleans, Louisiana), 5 December 1872, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In 1879, citizens of Tucson, Arizona, made Thanksgiving a daylong event, complete with a church sermon, a baseball game, and \u2013 for the city\u2019s \u201csociety people\u201d \u2013 a masquerade party. The ball offered a feast and a grand march that began at 8:30 p.m. and concluded at two o\u2019clock the next morning. The partiers wore lavish Chinese, Turkish, and Egyptian costumes, while Pocahontas, Mary Queen of Scots, and Little Red Riding Hood were spotted among the crowd. One gentleman came as a bottle of Bourbon.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Arizona Weekly Star (Tucson, Arizona), 4 December 1879, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile that year, Cincinnatians attended \u201cThanksgiving matinees\u201d at leading theaters. Grand balls, dress parties, banquets, concerts, and a beauty contest were among several events. There were also church sermons and a \u201cgood old-fashioned game of football.\u201d This newspaper article reported it all, including the memorable headline:<\/p>\n

Rest for the Tired, Sermons for the Religious, Amusements for the Giddy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"An<\/a>
Cincinnati Daily Star (Cincinnati, Ohio), 26 November 1879, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thanksgiving matinees were also held in Chicago. In 1890, the Deshon Opera Company\u2019s performances were \u201cstanding room only\u201d on Thanksgiving night. In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1891, the Columbia Social Club issued 500 invitations for a \u201cgrand masked ball\u201d to be held on Thanksgiving Eve.<\/p>\n

The Linsly Military Institute in Wheeling, West Virginia, held an annual Thanksgiving ball at the armory.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Wheeling Register (Wheeling, West Virginia), 30 November 1893, page 4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reports:<\/p>\n

The costumes of the ladies were handsome and elaborate, while the students never looked more manly than in their military uniforms\u2026 It was nearly midnight when the grand march took place\u2026 The ball continued until nearly three o\u2019clock this morning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Photo:
Photo: more Thanksgiving maskers, c. 1910. Credit: George Grantham Bain Collection; Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the 1910s, Thanksgiving maskers were more common in New York than other U.S. locales.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Aberdeen Daily News (Aberdeen, South Dakota), 29 November 1911, page 3<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article reports:<\/p>\n

In addition to eating turkey and incidentally being grateful for past mercies, New York has a Thanksgiving Day custom that is observed in few if any other communities in America. It is a masker\u2019s parade, indulged in chiefly by the children, but also enjoyed and in many cases participated in by the grownups.<\/p>\n

The custom is believed to have been originated by the foreign-born population of the big city, who, while they have no Thanksgiving in their own lands, make use of other holidays for carnival masquerades and seized upon Thanksgiving for that purpose after coming to America.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although this article calls it a New York custom in 1911, Thanksgiving masks were still being worn in the West, too. An opera house in Winnemucca, Nevada, was the scene of a lively masquerade ball on Thanksgiving night in 1912, and there were others.<\/p>\n

However, mask-wearing events became shifted to Halloween in the 1920s. In Halloween: An American Holiday, an American History<\/em><\/a>, Lesley Bannatyne wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Thanksgiving masquerade existed as late as the 1930s, then suddenly vanished, and then Halloween costumes and parades began to gain national popularity.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In place of masked revelry, Thanksgiving Day parades became popular. Thanksgiving-themed newspaper articles focused on dressing up dining tables with sparkling crystal, shining silver, and snowy, spotless linen. And of course the feast. The \u201cgiddy amusements\u201d of past Thanksgivings faded from memory\u2026<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> additional Thanksgiving maskers, c. 1910. Credit: George Grantham Bain Collection; Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this article, James Pylant will surprise you with the giddy revelry that our ancestors once enjoyed in celebrating Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":101105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12703],"tags":[3731,44],"class_list":["post-101091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-holidays","tag-social-history","tag-thanksgiving"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/photo-1118-2024-featured-graphic-additional-thanksgiving-maskers.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101091"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101104,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101091\/revisions\/101104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}