WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES JUNE 7, 2018 21
OUR NEIGHBORHOOD: THE WAY IT WAS
Celebrating Anniversary Day
in Woodhaven long ago
PRESENTED
BY THE WOODHAVEN CULTURAL
AND HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PROJECTWOODHAVEN@GMAIL.COM
For many years, Anniversary Day
was a huge event for those who
came of age in neighborhoods
in Brooklyn and Queens. There were
parades, fl oats, marching bands and
because it was observed on a weekday
– the fi rst Thursday in June – it
also served as a day off from school
for the kids.
These days, Anniversary Day is observed
by schools in all fi ve boroughs
but it bears little or no resemblance
to the holiday loved and celebrated all
those years ago. The active celebration
of Anniversary Day stretched into the
mid-1980s when it fi nally ended.
So, what was the celebration all
about? The very fi rst Sunday School
in New York City was founded in
1816 by the Brooklyn Sunday School
Union in order to “provide gratuitous
religious instruction to children on
the Sabbath Day.”
Thirteen years later, in 1829, the fi rst
Anniversary Day parade was held to
commemorate that founding as well
as to help increase the popularity of
Sunday Schools. As the city’s population
increased eastward, other unions
were formed and the fi rst union in
Queens, the Woodhaven Sunday
School Union, was founded in 1889.
As a result of this expansion, there
was no longer just one parade, but
dozens of diff erent parades made up
of hundreds of churches and tens of
thousands of marchers along routes
that traversed each neighborhood.
“The parade and the spirit that
inspires it constitute one of the genuinely
worthwhile things in the city.”
That’s how Governor Herbert Lehman
described it in 1937. Although it was a
Protestant holiday, churches included
Scout troops and other organizations
that met in their buildings, so there
were people of many diff erent faiths
coming together to celebrate.
In Woodhaven, the observance was
so big and popular that there were actually
two separate parades held at the
same time, marching along diff erent
routes, including a varying number of
churches, at times from as far away as
Cypress Hills and Far Rockaway.
The ‘East End’ parade included
Emanuel United Church of Christ, the
Community Church of Woodhaven, St.
Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Christ
Congregational Church, Woodhaven
First Presbyterian, along with
the First Methodist Church and
United Brethren Churches, both of
Ozone Park.
Those in the ‘West End’ parade
included Woodhaven’s Methodist
Church, Christ Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Woodhaven Baptist Church,
Forest Park Reformed Church and St.
Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church.
The parades started in their respective
ends of the neighborhood, but both
traveled along 91st Avenue and passed
a single reviewing stand populated by
local luminaries; State Assemblymen
and Senators, City Councilmen, and
Civic and Local Business leaders.
Each year’s parade had a theme such
as “Love One Another,” “Try Christ’s
Way,” or “Christian Unity—World Fellowship.”
One year, in the late 1930’s, the
theme was simply “Peace,” a wish that
would be shattered in just a few years.
For residents of Woodhaven, Anniversary
Day was a gigantic and memorable
event. Scouting groups carried
fl ags and churches carried banners
identifying themselves and the diff erent
groups represented. Bands were
hired, hymns were sung. During
World War II (save for 1943 when the
parade was suspended), churches
proudly carried service fl ags with the
names of their boys in service.
Floats were decorated to match each
year’s parade theme; smaller kids
rode on the fl oats which were pulled
by volunteers from the older groups
or the Boy Scouts. Mothers pushed
their young infants in baby carriages
or strollers which were also decorated
in colorful paper.
In 1959, the State Legislature made it
a legal holiday for all schools in Brooklyn
and Queens, and it also became
well known as Brooklyn-Queens day.
Over the next few decades participation
in the parades began to dwindle
and 1985 saw the very last Anniversary
Day parade in Woodhaven, just 4
years shy of what would have been its’
100th anniversary.
Today’s students might just see it as
another welcome day off (the Department
of Education is observing it in
Brooklyn and Queens today, Thursday,
June 7), but those who grew up around
Anniversary Day remember it fondly
and lament the passing of another
tradition, yet another in a long line
of losses that leaves our piece of the
world just a little less special.
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