Easter Parade 🎩The Easter Parade, circa 1900
This view of Fifth Avenue at the turn of the century shows New York City holding its famous Easter Parade. The parade, famous for its display of beautiful bonnets and fancy hats, has been occurring since the 1870′s in New York.
One of the first places crowds gathered to dispaly their Easter finery in New York City was not Fifth Avenue, but Central Park. The New York Times of April 21, 1873 reported:
“In the afternoon the crowds began to arrive. By every line of cars they swarmed into the Park. And, strange to say, there was a full fair sprinkling of the comparatively aristocratic classes, besides those who habitually make the Park their paradise on fine Sundays. Many couples were promenading who had certainly come from St. Thomas’ and other Fifth avenue churches, for their prayer-books were still in their hands. It seemed to be a universal exodus. Their were ladies in the most delicate Spring attire, poor sewing and shop girls in their Easter finery, ragged little children playing tag, to the great scandal of the straight-laced. And their were gentlemen in fine Spring overcoats and in heavy Winter overcoats, in Spring suits and Winter suits. Their were ladies in heavy silks and warm furs, and beside them others in the latest varieties of cameo fabrics. It was evident that if some had come to parade their finery, the great majority had been perfectly surprised by such kindness on the part of Spring, but had determined, like sensible folk, to enjoy the fresh air and the glorious day in their old clothes It would be impossible to calculate the crowds that swarmed over the Park like emigrating bees.”
By 1879 the Easter Parade was officially taking place on Fifth Avenue according to The New York Times. The newspaper on April 14, 1879 commented “that Fifth Avenue was crowded with promenaders” and “Spring bonnets were worn by every lady promenader.”
The tradition of the Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue continues in the 21st century and is no longer an aristocratic event, but one open to anyone wishing to show off their sense of style (or lack of it).
Easter Parade St Patrick's Cathedral 1911
Fifth Avenue Easter Parade, 1898
Easter Parade 1900
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The Easter parade is an American cultural event consisting of a festive strolling procession on Easter Sunday. Typically, it is a somewhat informal and unorganized event, with or without religious significance. Persons participating in an Easter parade traditionally dress in new and fashionable clothing, particularly ladies' hats, and strive to impress others with their finery. The Easter parade is most closely associated with Fifth Avenue in New York City,
but Easter parades are held in many other cities. Starting as a
spontaneous event in the 1870s, the New York parade became increasingly
popular into the mid-20th century—in 1947, it was estimated to draw over
a million people.[1] Its popularity has declined significantly, drawing only 30,000 in 2008.
Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday has been cited as the earliest precursor to modern
Easter parades.
Easter processions or parades, often including special dress, have been part of Christian culture since its earliest beginnings. The Bible records two processions in the first Holy Week. The first was on Palm Sunday as Jesus was welcomed to Jerusalem by an adoring throng. The second took place as Jesus carried a cross to Calvary. These processions are often commemorated in Christian church services, and are seen as the earliest predecessors of the modern Easter parade.
During the Dark Ages, Christians in Eastern Europe
would gather in a designated spot before Easter church services, then
walk solemnly to the church. Sometimes the congregation would form
another parade after the services, retracing their steps and singing
songs of praise. These processions had two purposes—to demonstrate to
churchgoers the unity of spirit found in their faith, and to reach out
to nonbelievers in a highly visible manner. Even in those times,
participants wore their finest attire to show respect for the occasion.
In the Middle Ages, the clergy
expanded these processions into teaching tools. Paintings and statues
would be placed along city streets, where church members could walk from
one to another to see all the "stations of the cross." To a public that had no access to the Bible and often could not understand the Latin language in which church services were conducted, these special processions were a means to understanding their faith.
Other parades have been held on important days during and close to Lent. An example can be found in today's parades on Mardi Gras. Beginning about 1782, German settlers in Pennsylvania held non-religious parades on Easter Monday, then widely celebrated as a holiday. The parades continued for over a century.
Easter finery
Participants in New York City's 2007 Easter parade
Having new clothes for Easter had deep roots in European customs. Sacred
times called for special forms of dress —material markers of holiness
and celebration. Distinctive garb for Easter, like one's "Sunday best"
and the special vestments of priests, for centuries showed the solemnity and sacredness of the season.
Authorities attribute the introduction of elaborate Easter
ceremonies, including gaudy dress and display of personal finery, to the
Roman Emperor Constantine I in the early part of the 4th century, when he "ordered his subjects to dress in their finest and parade in honor of Christ's resurrection."
A superstition current in Tudor
times held that unless a person had new homespun cloth available at
Easter, moths and crickets would eat the old goods, and destructive rooks would nest in large numbers around the residence. An old Irish adage stated "For Christmas, food and drink; for Easter, new clothes," and a 15th-century proverb from Poor Robin's Almanack states that if on Easter Sunday some part of one's outfit is not new, one will not enjoy good luck during the year:
At Easter let your clothes be new, Or else be sure you will it rue.
The New York parade
Fifth Avenue, New York City, on Easter Sunday, 1900
Participants in New York City's 2007 Easter parade
From the 1880s through the 1950s, New York's Easter parade was one of
the main cultural expressions of Easter in the United States. It was
one of the fundamental ways that Easter was identified and celebrated. The seeds of the parade were sown in New York's highly ornamented churches—Gothic buildings such as Trinity Episcopal Church, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and St. Thomas' Episcopal Church. In the mid-19th century, these and other churches began decorating their sanctuaries
with Easter flowers. The new practice was resisted by traditionalists,
but was generally well received. As the practice expanded, the floral
displays grew ever more elaborate, and soon became defining examples of
style, taste, abundance, and novelty. Those who attended the churches
incorporated these values into their dress. In 1873, a newspaper report
about Easter at Christ Church said "More than half the congregation were
ladies, who displayed all the gorgeous and marvelous articles of
dress,... and the appearance of the body of the church thus vied in
effect and magnificence with the pleasant and tasteful array of flowers
which decorated the chancel."
It takes place on Fifth Avenue (around 49th to 57th Streets) in Manhattan from 10am-4pm on Easter Sunday. Anyone may participate and dressing up is highly encouraged.
By the 1880s, the Easter parade had become a vast spectacle of
fashion and religious observance, famous in New York and around the
country. It was an after-church cultural event for the well-to-do—decked
out in new and fashionable clothing, they would stroll from their own
church to others to see the impressive flowers (and to be seen by their
fellow strollers). People from the poorer and middle classes would observe the parade to learn the latest trends in fashion.
By 1890, the annual procession held an important place on New York's
calendar of festivities and had taken on its enduring designation as
"the Easter parade."
As the parade and the holiday together became more important, dry goods merchants and milliners
publicized them in the promotion of their wares. Advertisements of the
day linked an endless array of merchandise to Easter and the Easter
parade. In 1875, Easter had been invisible on the commercial scene. By
1900, it was as important in retailing as the Christmas season is today.
Not everyone was enthused about the display of wealth and beauty.
Critics worried regularly over Easter extravagance and the "vaunting of
personal possessions" that offended deep-seated American values of
simplicity, frugality, and self-denial. In 1914, social critic Edwin Markham spotlighted the crushing hardships of the sweatshop workers who made Easter's artificial flowers. During the Great Depression,
groups of unemployed workers paraded in coarse and worn-out clothing,
often carrying banners drawing attention to their plight. One of these
compared the cost of a single Fifth Avenue gown to a year's worth of welfare relief for a job seeker and his family. Cranks and demagogues often used the parade to attract public attention and to plead their questionable causes.
In 1933, American songwriter Irving Berlin wrote the music for a revue on Broadway called As Thousands Cheer. It included his song "Easter Parade",
which he had been working on for fifteen years, and in which he had
finally captured the essence of the parade. Both the song and the revue
were tremendously popular. The song became a standard, and fifteen years later was the basis for the film Easter Parade.
By the mid-20th century, the parade's religious aspects had faded,
and it was mostly seen as a demonstration of American prosperity. The
year 1946 saw a resurgence of stunts, pranks, and extravagant behavior.
In 1947, the State Department's Voice of America did a radio broadcast of the Fifth Avenue parade to the Soviet Union, the idea being to show the economic inferiority of the Soviet system. In 1955, The Saturday Evening Post
stated that New York's springtime pageant was only an incidental
celebration of a religious holiday, and had become a reflection of the
fact that, in America, a person was as good as the clothes and other
goods he or she was able to buy. The parade itself had become an
unstructured, boundless event, with no apparent beginning, ending,
organization, or purpose. Some think that had begun in the 1870s as a
parade of refinement and religious display had become merely an
ostentatious frolic.
Today, New York's Easter parade is enjoyed both by families in Sunday best and people and pets
in outlandish costumes, often paying hommage to the parade's former
glory by, to cite a typical example, wearing garish hats with live birds
in flower-adorned cages. New Yorkers of all ages and types participate
and it's popular with the festive set.
Other venues
As New York's parade grew in prominence from the 1880s onward, other cities developed their own versions. Philadelphia and Boston were among these, as were Coney Island and Atlantic City,
where the parades became tourist attractions. In 1925, Coney Island
merchants hired fifty show girls to parade in bathing suits as part of
the event. The crowds were huge. During the 1920s, Atlantic City's
parade attracted 200,000 and more. The parade there had become a
vacation carnival of costuming and consumption—a rollicking amusement
for the tourist.
In the 21st century, Easter parades are conducted in many cities, with prominent ones in Richmond (36th annual parade, 2008), New Orleans (25th annual parade), Toronto (42nd annual), and elsewhere.
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