National Chicken Dance Day - May 14th

According to Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers, today is National Chicken Dance Day. Admittedly, most of us groan when faced with having to do the "Chicken Dance" at a wedding or ballpark, but my husband's family may regard it as a heritage celebration opportunity. You can find several people named Schickendantz in his family tree! You can imagine the spelling derivatives for that surname.

In the snippet from the 1860 Census, you see the listing for Henry Schickantz age 33, male Watchmaker with property worth 1,000 born in Germany living in the 12th Ward of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with Edith Schickantz age 27 female born in Germany, Henry age 8, male, born in Pennsylvania, and Charlotta Hoffman age 26 female, born in Germany.

The 1870 census above, lists
Schikendantz, Henry, age 44, male, white
                        Ida, age 34, female, white
                        Henry, age 12, male, white
                        Frank, age 8, male, white
                        Geo., age 2, male, white
Hoffman, Charlotte, age 54, female, white
                 August, age 28, male, white

By the 1880 census, the enumerators in Philadelphia's Twentieth Ward are doing a better job with at least this German surname, listed are:
Schickendantz, H. white, male, 53, married, watchmaker and jeweler, born in Alsace, father born in Alsace, mother born in Alsace
--------, Ida, white, female, 43, wife, married, keeping house, born in Alsace, father born in Alsace, mother born in Alsace.
--------, Henry, white, male, 21, son, single, with father, born in Virginia, father born Alsace, mother born in Alsace.
--------, Frank, white, male, 17, son, single, with father, born in Pennsylvania, father born Alsace, mother born Alsace.
--------, George, white, male, 11, son, single, school, born in Pennsylvania, father born Alsace, mother born in Alsace.
--------, Paul, white, male, 7, son, single, school, born in Pennsylvania, father born Alsace, mother born Alsace.
--------, Clara, white, female, 1, daughter, single, born in Pennsylvania, father born Alsace, mother born Alsace.
Hoffman, Charlotte, white, female, sister-in-law, widowed, at home, Mechlenberg, father born Mechlenberg, mother born Mechlenberg.
-----------, Augusts, white, male, nephew, single, born Mechlenberg, father born Mechlenberg, mother born Mechlenberg.

Of course all of these people really have nothing to do with the "Chicken Dance", according to Wikipedia, "is an oom-pah song and its associated fad dance is now a contemporary American folk dance. The song was composed by accordion player Werner Thomas from Davos, Switzerland, in the 1950s.