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AssetID: 35669543

Headline: Forget Halloween: How Thanksgiving Used To be Just as Scary

Caption: PICTURE SHOWS: A scene showing Thanksgiving turkeys around the same time as Thanksgiving Maskers (circa 1910-1915) .... STORY COPY: These photographs may look like stills from a horror film like The Purge, or even vintage scenes of Halloween, however, these images show how children use to wear scary masks as a way to celebrate Thanksgiving. The tradition of the Thanksgiving Maskers was active in New York City in the late 19th and early 20th century. The practice saw mainly poor children in New York parade through the street in costume and masked or painted faces. These pictures, taken circa 1910-1915, show children dressed as adults, getting their faces painted and weary unsettling masks. Research by Tom Bober, for the Library of Congress, explains: "The (news) articles reveal more layers of the tradition. One article details that it was common for boys to dress as girls and girls as boys, asking adults on the street for money, candy, or fruit. Another article shares that not reciprocating may have resulted in a child blowing a horn in your ear or hitting you with a flour-filled sack. Editorials and other articles present the tradition as disruptive rather than festive. Reports have children numbering in the thousands with varying accounts of the origin of the tradition." An article in The River Press, dated 29 November, 1911, reported: "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. From them it spread to some extent to the native Americans and now is generally observed throughout Greater New York."

Keywords: odd,oddity,offbeat,funny,LOL,quirky,weird,amazing,interesting,cool,humour

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