Nearly six decades after a Bay Ridge priest borrowed an idea from a Manhattan boys' club, kids in homemade costumes will once again fill Third Avenue for the Ragamuffin Parade, with Our Lady of Angels Parish recognized in the celebration. The parade returns on September 26, 2026, at 1 p.m. at Third Avenue and 76th Street.
The milestone connects the celebration to Our Lady of Angels Parish, where the parade originated in 1967. Alongside the parish, the parade will recognize Bay Ridge Cares, while organizers are seeking junior marshals.
A Priest's Idea Born From a Manhattan Boys' Club
The Ragamuffin Parade traces its founding to 1967, when Father James McKenna and neighbor Cliff Scanlon launched the march in Bay Ridge. McKenna reportedly proposed the idea after recalling 1940s Thanksgiving Ragamuffin parades organized by Manhattan's Madison Square Boys Club, where boys wore oversized adult clothing resembling rag-tag drifters as a way to curb unstructured street begging, according to The Brooklyn Home Reporter. The inaugural committee, formed at Our Lady of Angels Parish, also included Holy Name Society members Nick Albanese, Tom Clavin, Walter Kassenbrock and Edward McCaffrey.
That structured march was itself a civic answer to a much older custom. The term “ragamuffin” stems from a New York City Thanksgiving Day tradition dating back to around 1870, when children dressed in rags and oversized clothing asked neighbors “Anything for Thanksgiving?” in exchange for candy, fruit or pennies — a direct precursor to modern Halloween trick-or-treating, per the New York Public Library. Around 1930, NYC Superintendent of Schools William J. O'Shea pushed back against the practice, issuing circulars urging an end to the begging because children were “annoying adults.”
From Church Avenue to a Commercial Corridor
When the Bay Ridge parade first began in the late 1960s, children marched down Fourth Avenue, before later events took place on Third Avenue, according to Hey Ridge. By 1972, just six years after its founding, the New York Times had designated the Bay Ridge march the largest Ragamuffin parade in the United States, with roughly 6,000 costumed children marching before an estimated 35,000 spectators.
The neighborhood's ties to the tradition remain part of the parade's history. The parade also takes place before the Third Avenue Festival, which takes over the same corridor.
According to the New York City Planning Commission, Third Avenue is a two-way, mixed-use corridor that also serves as a local truck route.
A Family Tradition Spanning Generations
Marianne Fezza has watched the tradition pass through her own family, with participation spanning three generations.
Fezza said synagogues, businesses and merchants have been involved. She added that young volunteers represent the future of the neighborhood.
What's on the Route This Year
The parade includes a costume contest. The parade also includes a children's costume march on Third Avenue.
The march is an annual tradition. Six decades after the Ragamuffin Parade Committee first set out to celebrate children, families and the unique spirit of the Bay Ridge community, that mission returns to Third Avenue this month.
