May 1 used to be moving day for everyone in New York City.
If you think the crowds at Manhattan's Rockefeller Center get crazy during the holidays, imagine the majority of the city's population packing the streets with beds and other personal belongings on a single day of the year. That's how it was for the better part of two centuries for New Yorkers, thanks to a Colonial-era tradition that may have stemmed from the English celebration of May Day, or at least traditions brought over by European settlers. Of course, the mood among residents was typically more frenzied than celebratory by the time leases expired May 1; an 1855 New York Times article described the scene as "Everybody in a hurry, smashing mirrors in his haste … and many a good piece of furniture badly bruised in consequence." (The chaos stemmed in part from the fact that landlords had to notify tenants of rent increases on February 1, which were set to take effect three months later; everyone who didn’t agree with the new prices had to be out by 9 a.m. May 1.) It was a harrowing experience for all but the cartmen who jacked up their fees for the day, prompting the city to finally regulate rates for movers in 1890.
By the early 20th century, May 1 had given way to October 1 as New York's moving day, with the tumultuous proceedings settling into more of "an exact science." However, the annual moving day custom in NYC soon went the way of the horse and buggy, due to a few factors. World War II drew most of the able-bodied movers into service, and a postwar housing shortage, along with the subsequent establishment of rent-control laws and other housing regulations, reduced the number of the city's moves in general. These days, while moving in New York is certainly still stressful, at least most of the city isn't doing it at once.
While a May 1 moving day for renters is now permanently ensconced in New York City's past, it remains alive and well in other areas. Quebec, which also previously had a date of May 1 for most legal agreements, swapped the date to July 1 for housing leases in the early 1970s (although it's now a matter of tradition rather than law). In Boston, where rental markets are driven by the high concentration of college students, the moving trucks come out in full force September 1. And in Chicago, another city influenced by old English and Dutch celebrations, the first of May and October remain the most popular moving dates by hefty margins.
