A discussion on three major New Years Day events that were practiced in the United States in the 1800's.

So what did you do New Year’s Day? By any chance did you go “calling” on an open house? Or perhaps you held one for friends and family to come over and visit? If so you participated in a very old tradition in our countries history. This well know custom in the new young country was brought to the Presidency by George Washington while the country’s capital was located in Philidelphia. Opening the doors so anyone and everyone could shake his hand and bend his ear.
After the capital moved to Washington City everyone held their collective breath when Thomas Jefferson was elected President, wondering if he would continue the tradition. The city breathed a sigh of relief when they found he would with a few minor change. One of the changes Jefferson installed limited the hours for calling on the Presidential House to the morning only. He firmly closing the doors around two in the afternoon to enable him to do his own calling.
By the time William Taft was President in 1910, the open house had turned into a reception. It had also grown into quiet a formal affair which included a presidential receiving line. From what I understand it was one of the highlights of the year with both the known and unknown mingling over punch and cake.
The tradition died when Franklin D. Roosevelt gained the office in 1934 because of his inability to stand for the required long period of time in the receiving line never to be revised.
A second New Years Day tradition that IS still with us is the Philadephia Mummers Day Parade. It started out as a combination of Swedish Christmas customs combinied with English New Years Day customs modified by and for our country, and the Philadephia area. These included roving bands of costumed merry makers and a play about George Washington instead of ST George and the Dragon. In the evolution of the day, the play disappeared and the roving bands of costumed merry makers increased. Most of the groups were small, unorganized and primarily stayed in their section of Philadephia. When they visited your house, you were suppose to pretend not to know whom it was in the costume visiting you.
Over time the costumes became nicer and the small groups started joining together for an improptu parade. One of the first groups to start forming a parade was the Shooters, so named because they shot off their guns and made a racket, on the south side of town.
It is in 1876 that the beginning of the parade as we know it today began. It was sponsored by, The Silver Crown New Year’s Assoiciation, one of the few large organizations to participate in it. However, it still wasn’t formally organized or even recognized by the city and wouldn’t be for another quarter century.
In 1901 the mummers requested and received a parade permit and city recognition. That year 42 clubs got together to march by Broad Street. It was also the first year that money prizes were offered for costumes, bands, and antics. To my understanding, the Philadephia Mummers Parade continues to change and grow as it celebrates the years in the twenty-first century.
The third major event that occurs on New Years Day is one most of us are familar with: the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade. It has gone from its humble beginnings with only 2,000 spectators to a major world event in its hundred plus year history. It started in 1890 when the members of the Valley Hunt Club voted to create a parade of flower decorated horses and buggies in the morning and public games in the afternoon. In 1894 they permitted organizations to enter floats which were seen by people in the first viewing stands. The following year the parade was produced by the newly formed Tournament of Roses Association. It had gotten too big for the Valley Hunt Club to handle. One of the first things the Association did was create a public subsription campaign to raise a little over $500 for the 1896 parade.
In succeeding years it continued to grow as it was covered by both reporters from eastern newspapers, and at the turn of the century by the Vitascope Company - who produced the first motion picture of the Parade.
Some of the major changes over the years were: a reluctance to allow motorized vehicles, gaining a Queen and a court, and gained and lost a King. By the end of the 1920 parade horse drawn floats were completely replaced by motor-driven floats.
By 1926 the parade was on local radio, in 1932 carried nationally by shortwave, and in 1947 a local, experimental television station aired it.
There were always sports in the afternoon, the longest running and most notably an annual chariot races which they quit producing after 1915 because of the cost and danger. To be replaced the following year by the Rose Bowl. Slowly the other games which had occured on New Years Day disappeared as the afternoon became known for its collegiate football.
It’s interesting to see that all three of these events started at the local level and grew in importance as the years went by. While it is sad that the Presidential Open House no longer occurs given today’s political climate, among other things, maybe it’s for the best.
So how did you spend your New Years Day?