These Popular Vintage Thanksgiving Traditions Are Downright Creepy

If you were to put all holidays in a police line up, it would be pretty easy to point out Thanksgiving in the group. It would stand out with Pilgrim hats, oversized parade balloons, gourds, and turkeys. But did you know that Thanksgiving was a different kind of holiday back in the early 1900s?

Before the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, people would spend this day engaging in the ritual known as “masking.” Kids would dress up in the garb of common homeless people and beg for pennies or treats. It was almost like Halloween, but if every kid was uncreative and all dressed in the same hobo costume.

The weird thing about “masking” was that, while kids were dressed like homeless people, there were actual homeless people on the streets and in need. Either way, I’m glad we still don’t do this. Giant creepy balloons are good enough for me.