'Masking' Memories: Thanksgiving In Disguise

By
Linton Weeks
WNYC | Nov 24, 2015

These days it seems like the holidays are running together — at least commercially speaking — when Halloween masks start popping up around Labor Day and Christmas trappings are for sale in the stores before Thanksgiving.

In the stores it feels sort of like Hallothankshanachristmasgivingween.

But the jumbling of holidays is not exclusive to contemporary times. Turns out that people all across America used to wear costumes on or near Thanksgiving, which effectively created a mash-up of Halloween and Turkey Day.

So in honor of Thanksgiving Week, here is an encore presentation of a holiday story we posted — under a different guise — last year.

Follow me @NPRHistoryDept; lead me by writing lweeks@npr.org

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.
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Linton Weeks

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