Gipsie:
Moving Day is international in scope and has several different connotations. Most notably, during the eighteenth and well into the nineteenth centuries, all residential leases expired on April first, May first or, to a lesser extent, October first. If the landlord raised the rent or desired to have the current renter gone, it became “Moving Day” for the house occupants. Many cities around the world would see a shift of up to 40 percent or more of their populations change living quarters on Moving Day. Here is a description of Moving Day in New York City during the last quarter of the nineteenth century:
In New York City the first of May is moving-day. Carpets are torn up, goods hustled into carts and wagons and drays of all descriptions, some families turning our while others are moving in, and all in a hurry, bustle, and confusion harvest for express-wagons and carriers; distress, damage, loss, and misery to thousands who do not own their own homes.
Other names for Moving Days around the world including Flitting Day (England); flytte dag (Denmark); and flytja, flyt flutti (Iceland). Moving Day is an unofficial holiday in French-speaking Quebec.
In some farming communities around the country, Moving Day came to mean the date when the hired farm laborers would move on to other agrarian employment. This often occurred on September 29 or October first, but in the nation of Latvia, it occurs on April 23. It appears Moving Day on dairy farms was when the milk cows changed from silage and barn fodder to pasture grazing.
There are many uses for the term “Moving Day” as you can see, so zeroing in on its specific usage here in South Jersey may be daunting—other than the definition that Hewey already supplied.
Best regards,
Jerseyman
