When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

In New York City, St. Patrick’s Day is the day that everyone is — or wishes they were — Irish. Fifth Avenue is closed to traffic, the street’s center stripe is painted green, and thousands of marchers, dancers and celebrants make their way up the avenue in the world’s largest celebration of Irish heritage and culture.

Dancers heading up 5th Avenue

Pipers walk on the green striped roadway

Cheerleaders from Utrecht High School

Family with green hair

Dublin girl with green eyelashes

Woman with beer goggles

Uniformed officers salute the pipers

Marching band with shining brass

Friends with green hair

Mother & son celebrate

Sisters in faux leopard skin coats

Wearing a green tam o’ shanter

Smiling in festive hats

A band of pipers marching

Pipers in kilts near 82nd Street

Man with a drum

Fisherman’s knit sweater and tweed cap

Girl from Fordham in tartan plaid

Friends in green

Tiny leprauchan around his neck

Her tiara says “Irish Princess”

Today everybody is Irish

Carrying American flags

Man with green goatee and brows

Girl with shamrocks

St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Welcoming a New Year in an Old Neighborhood

This old neighborhood in Lower Manhattan has been known as “Chinatown” since the mid-eighteenth century.

While it hasn’t been the center of New York’s Chinese life for decades, the area remains the city’s oldest and best-known Chinatown (New York’s other Chinatowns are located in Sunset Park, Brooklyn and Flushing, Queens) and it is still the site of the region’s largest lunar New Year celebration.

Today, the narrow, twisting streets were filled beyond capacity as thousands of people squeezed in to buy souvenirs, cheer the dancers, drummers and marchers, and twist the cardboard tubes of confetti shooters ($5 each! Three for $10!) until their contents exploded, showering the crowd with shiny paper and foil.

This year, as the parade welcoming the Year of the Rat drew to a end, a sudden, fierce snowstorm erupted. The swirling white flakes mixed with the brightly-colored steamers, delighting the children, quickly clearing out the celebrants and creating a memorable close to this chilly, festive day.

New Year’s decorations for sale on Mott Street

The streets were packed

The star of the day, the New Year’s Rat

Getting a good view of the parade

Boy with a lion costume

Displaying white lion mask

Good thing Dad is tall

Some kids can’t see a thing

Wearing mouse ears to honor the Rat

Grown-ups wore mouse ears, too

Metallic streamers landed in her hair

Father & daughter try to trigger confetti shooter

Boy with confetti shooter

Girl with New Year’s sweets

Paper dragon in a storefront

Enthralled by the spectacle

A smile as big as the parade

Girl having a great time

The air was filled with confetti

That isn’t just paper falling!

It’s snowing!

The crowd starts to clear out

Soon only the police are left walking through the storm

Lunar New Year’s Parade

The day was rainy and cold, but spirits were still bright for the 13th annual Lunar New Year parade in Flushing, Queens.

Here, in the neighborhood that is home to New York’s largest Asian population, the Chinese and Korean communities marched down Main Street to welcome in the Year of the Rat. Happy New Year!

Mounted police officers lead the parade

NYPD Marching Band

The Chinese marchers begin

There’s a kid under that gigantic mask

Carrying flags

The mouse ears symbolize the Year of the Rat

A lion on parade

Carrying flags

A little lion dances

A dragon held aloft

Martial arts demonstration

Beating the drum

The kids are enthralled

A costumed dancer

Large dragon is held aloft

Korean-American Association

Marching band

Drummers and dancers

Banging the gong

Riding on a float

Beating a drum

Clanging the cymbals

Girls in Korean dress

Traditional Korean costume

Korean War veterans

Veterans marching on Main Street

WNYC: Lunar New Year Kicks Off in Flushing
Times-Ledger: Flushing Gears Up

New York Dyke March

Chances are that you’ve never heard of it, but for a small, dedicated group, it has become an annual tradition. The occurrence? The New York Dyke March.

Although it has taken place in Manhattan every year since 1993, I never saw this highly-political event until today.

The organizers carefully stress that it is a protest march to promote lesbian rights and visibility, not a parade, and that — unlike tomorrow’s enormous Pride Parade — it takes place without city permits or corporate sponsorship.

Marchers gathered in midtown at Bryant Park, then headed down Fifth Avenue to Greenwich Village’s Washington Square, carrying banners, beating drums and gathering more women along the way.

While the Pride Parade attracts international news coverage, the New York Dyke March receives scant attention in the major media. Nevertheless, it always manages to draw thousands of participants and spectators in New York and similar marches are now held in major cities across the United States and around the world.  

The March begins at Bryant Park

4 Queer Womyn’s Rights

Queer Justice League

A pair of spectators

Woman with rainbow lei

Temporary tattoo

Couple in straw hats

Unsponsored. Unpermitted.

Woman from GO magazine

Orange shirt

Pink lipstick and bandanna

Woman with rainbows

Let my mommies marry

Three friends

Her shirt says “Little Feminist”

New Orleans needs stronger dikes

Sunglasses on her head

Red hoodie and bike

Pink hair & pink bike

T-shirt with heart

Happy Pride

I love vegan dykes

Not your grandmother’s lesbian

NYC Dyke March
Lesbian Avengers
MySpace: Queer Justice League
Queer Justice League

Remembering in Bay Ridge

This is a side of Brooklyn you’ve never seen on television or in the movies. Here, in the southwestern corner of the borough, in the shadow of the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge, is a place bursting with patriotism and pride.

Today, in this location, there are no wiseguys, gangstas, hipsters or poseurs. No protestors or dissenters, either. Those who crowd the streets and the park have all come for what is known as “the longest-running continuous Memorial Day parade in the United States.”

For the 140th year, those who came to the Bay Ridge Memorial Day parade marched, watched, cheered and waved their flags. They listened to accounts of battles gone by, sacrifices made and lives lost. They wore their uniforms, patches, ribbons and medals, embraced old friends and, quietly, unashamedly wiped away their tears.

On this sunny day, a normally-busy section of the city that never sleeps stopped, stood at attention and remembered. And on Memorial Day in Bay Ridge, no “designer” label could ever equal the status of an ordinary Broooklynite clad in red, white and blue.

Good Fellas Barber Shop
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Kelly’s Tavern with bunting
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Couple paying respects
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Rolling Thunder motorcycle
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Rolling Thunder
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Quartet of Scouts
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Girl Scouts
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Group of Scouts
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Veterans & granddaughter
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Members of the American Legion
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Lady in a yellow suit
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Member of Rolling Thunder
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Scoutmaster
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Boy Scouts
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Friends in uniform
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Family group
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Scout & Mom
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Vet with helmet & flag
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Rolling Thunder pair
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Women with flags
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Courier-Life: Brooklyn celebrates Memorial Day ‘07
NYC Dept of Parks & Recreation: This Memorial Day Weekend
Bay Ridge Blog

In Your Easter Bonnet

Easter Parade
In your Easter bonnet
With all the frills upon it
You’ll be the grandest lady in the Easter parade

I’ll be all in clover
And when they look you over
I’ll be the proudest fellow in the Easter parade

On the Avenue, Fifth Avenue
The photographers will snap us
And you’ll find that you’re in the rotogravure

Oh, I could write a sonnet
About your Easter bonnet
And of the girl I’m taking to the Easter parade

– Irving Berlin, 1933

The Easter Parade is one of New York’s best-known and least understood holiday traditions. There are no floats, no marching bands, no reviewing stand, no check-in table, no starting spot or finish line. It’s not that kind of parade. In fact, there’s not much organization at all.

The event’s title stems from the use of “parade” as a verb meaning “to promenade in a public place, esp. in order to show off.” Every Easter Sunday, Fifth Avenue from 49th to 57th Streets (roughly the area between Rockefeller Center and Central Park) is closed to traffic for several hours while the paraders stroll along the pavement.

Anyone who wants to participate is free to join in at any time while the celebration is taking place. Street musicians, face painters, food vendors and others who want attention tend to show up, too.

But the focus of the parade is on ordinary people, specially dressed for the day, meandering up and down the street to greet each other, show off their outfits (particularly their “Easter bonnets”) and proudly pose for innumerable photographers and admirers.

Pink & white ears
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Sticking out her tongue
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Lavender bunny & shirt
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Pink Garden
Originally uploaded by annulla.

I Love Lucy hat
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Many colored feathers
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Hat with blue parrots
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Black leather & teddy bear
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Happy Easter scene hat
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Pink & silver hat
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Bunny
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Old-fashioned elegance
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Dressed up couple
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Two toppers
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Front
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Back
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Easter Parade film
As Thousands Cheer
Dictionary: Parade

The Wearin’ o’ the Green

On March 16 the city was battered by a fierce blizzard and an ice storm. Trains and flights were cancelled, drivers skidded and slid off the roads and pedestrians ran to the nearest store, stocked up on bread and milk, then scurried home and locked their doors.

But for those who wait all year for the wearin’ o’ the green, winter’s last gasp was a mere inconvenience; nothing could stop the 246th New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This is the city’s largest and most popular parade, typically drawing 2 million spectators and 150,000 marchers.

In New York the tradition is older than the nation; our first St. Patrick’s Day Parade was organized by Irish soldiers serving in His Majesty’s service more than 10 years before the Declaration of Independence was drafted.

The St Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the few that allow no cars, floats, trucks or other vehicles; anyone who wants to participate goes up Fifth Avenue, from 44th Street to 86th Street, on foot.

So, despite the day-long storm that nearly brought the city to a halt, city sanitation crews worked throughout the night to clear the route of ice and snow for today’s big parade. Other municipal agencies were busy, too, as subway and railroad schedules were adjusted to accommodate parade goers, the surrounding streets closed and barriers erected along the parade route.

The weather prevented the work crews from painting the traditional green stripe down the middle of the street, but everything else was as usual. Pipers and marching bands from around the country (and a few from the auld sod) nervously fingered their instruments. Firefighters and police officers assembled in their full dress uniforms. Souvenir vendors loaded themselves up with green balloons, green hats, green beads, shamrock stickers, Irish flags and badges saying “VIP: Very Irish Person” and “Kiss Me, I’m Irish.”

At the stroke of 11:00 the parade began, and it didn’t end until about 4:30, when the last red-headed, green-shirted boy giddily heard the applause as he crossed 86th Street. I hope your St. Patrick’s Day was as happy and exciting as his.

A lamppost on Fifth Avenue
Originally uploaded by annulla.

The last boy across 86th Street
Originally uploaded by annulla.

A green tie and a special cap
Originally uploaded by annulla.

The Buena Colts Marching Band from Arizona
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Wearing a green beret
Originally uploaded by annulla.

An experienced piper
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Banner of the Glasgow Celtic Supporters
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Father & daughter marched together
Originally uploaded by annulla.

A visitor from Vermont
Originally uploaded by annulla.

You don’t have to be Irish
Originally uploaded by annulla.

A marcher from New Jersey
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Displaying his faith
Originally uploaded by annulla.

His mother comes from Kerry
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Official St. Patrick’s Day Parade Web Site
SaintPatricksDayParade.com
Emigrant Online
Irish Echo
Irish Dirt

The Village Halloween Parade

In 1973, Greenwich Village mask maker and puppeteer Ralph Lee staged a house-to-house puppet show to entertain his neighbors, children and friends. Thirty-three years later, Lee’s show has evolved into the nation’s largest public Halloween celebration.

This year more than two million people lined Sixth Avenue to watch the Village Halloween Parade while another four million watched a live broadcast on local TV station NY1. Many of the people standing behind the barriers watching were as elaborately costumed as those who were marching, dancing and riding up the street.

Hometown boys (well, at least they are former New Yorkers) Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons of the rock band Kiss served as the Grand Marshals of the four hour event which included elaborate floats, choreographed dancers, dozens of marching bands, hundreds of puppets and more than 50,000 costumed marchers.

The sheer numbers make the event sound overwhelming but (unlike many other Halloween celebrations) the Village Halloween Parade isn’t raucous or rowdy; it remains a good-natured, friendly outdoor party for vampires, zombies, superheroes and kids of all ages.

Strawberry & big brother  

Man carrying skeleton puppet  

Captain Morgan  

MTV VJ & “David Letterman”  

Naughty cop & naughty maid  

Reporter & “Paris Hilton”  

Desperate housewife  

Stay-Puft marshmallow man  

Man in a pink tuxedo  

Martini girl  

Catwoman and Psycho Santa  

“Paris Hilton”  

Spoon man  

Lobster boy  

Beheaded man  

Blue-haired lady  

Corpse bride  

Zombie barista  

Elf  

Cheerleader

Raccoon  

The Riddler  

Religious guy  

Devil & Zombie  

Masked man  

Cow  

Spongebob Squarepants  

Bearded bumblebee  

Sock monkey

Man with a headache

Acrobats  

Viagra man  

Zombie  

Banana boy & friend  

Scooby Doo  

Easy chair  

Can-can girl  

First-class mail  

Hot dog girl  

Edward Scissorhands  

Orange feathers & red hair  

Woman with live parrots  

Puppeteers  

“Pamela Anderson” & “Kid Rock”  

Bagged spinach with E Coli  

Wolf & wizard  

Vampires  

Autumn leaf  

Little nurse  

“Borat”  

Little dinosaur in a stroller  

The Munsters  

Gilligan & palm tree 

Real cop & zombie cop  

Dia De Los Muertos  

Jack O’Lantern puppets  

Scary implants  

“Prince” & “Madonna”  

On the Mannheim Steamroller float  

Grand Marshals from Kiss  

Paul Stanley & Gene Simmons  

New York Village Halloween Parade

Kiss

NY1

Halloween Parade & Costume Extravaganza

On this crisp autumn day, canines from Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO gathered for the 2nd Annual Dog Halloween Parade and Costume Extravaganza. About 60 animals and their human companions assembled at the Remsen St. entrance to the Brooklyn Promenade, then scampered to the Harry Chapin Playground for judging.

The event’s sponsor, Perfect Paws, awarded dog-centric prizes for costumes in categories such as best large dog, best small dog, best store-bought, best homemade and most original. All entry fees from the Parade and Costume Extravaganza are being donated to the Hillside Dog Run and the Brooklyn Animal Resource Coalition (BARC) and will be used to benefit the animals of Brooklyn.

Parading towards the Playground

Little Orphan Annie

A little witch

Shar-pei cheerleader (sans pom-poms)

Count Dracula

A pig

Dragon & friend

Elvis & clown

In Happy Halloween shirt & bandana

Angel inspecting the judges  

Little Red Riding Hood & Wolf

In a ball gown  

Hot dog with ketchup

Little Elvis

Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz

Fairy princess

Another Elvis

Security dog

Hippie

In a poncho & sombrero

Hula girl

Devil  

Bark Mitzvah boy

Perfect Paws

Harry Chapin Playground

Hillside Dog Park

BARC

Dancing up Fifth Avenue for 41 Years

By definition, the word Hispanic refers to people from the Spanish-speaking areas of the Americas and the Caribbean.

For 41 years, New York’s United Hispanic-American Parade has brought together people whose origins are in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Dressed in their national and regional costumes, thousands of men, women and children mambo, salsa, merengue, cha-cha and tango up Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. The dancers’ energy and joy is contagious, the drummers hands are frenetic, and the massed spectators smile, sway and wave flags in time to the relentless beat.

Girl with yellow pom-poms

Girls in orange

Girl with blue eyeshadow

Puerto Rican woman

Dancers waiting for their cue

A dancer and her beau

Men with bells on their boots

Girl in ostrich feathers

Girl in pink and green

Boys and girls in pink and green

Men with skulls on their chests

People in Peruvian costumes

Drummers marching up the avenue

New York Hispanic Parade

Galos Corp.: New York Hispanic Parade History

West Indies at Borough Hall

This evening, commuters emerging from busses and subways near Borough Hall were greeted by the sound of beating drums, shaking maracas and resonating gourds. It was an outdoor concert organized by the West Indian American Day Carnival Association, the folks responsible for the annual Labor Day parade on Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway.

Dancer on stilts

Two dancers on stilts kicking backwards in unison

Playing the guitar

Orange and white feathers 

Pink and orange feathers

Young dancer

West Indian American Day Carnival Association

Pride Parade 2006

When it comes to homosexuality, most gay organizations are determined to project an image of normalcy in which all gay men are Will Truman and all lesbians Ellen DeGeneres.

– Riki Wilchins

This massive last-Sunday-in-June event has always been characterized by a mixture of flamboyance and defiance. Initially known as the “Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day March,” it began as a way to commemorate the first anniversary of the Stonewall Riots - the singular event that sparked the gay rights movement.

The Stonewall Riots (also known as the Stonewall Rebellion) took place over several nights in June 1969. The riots started during what was supposed to be a routine police raid at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar on Christopher Street. According to Martin Duberman’s book, Stonewall, the rebellion was sparked when a police officer prodded drag queen and incipient transgender activist Sylvia Rivera with a nightstick and she responded by throwing a bottle at him.

A melee ensued and the angry crowd overwhelmed the surprised officers who’d expected the crowd at the Stonewall, like all their predecessors, to quietly enter the paddy wagon and submit to arrests for “indecency.” When passers-by and patrons of other bars in the neighborhood joined the fight, the NYPD brought in reinforcements and riot gear. Before it was over, a crowd of 2,000 protestors fought 400 police officers. Once unleashed, their sense of injustice and outrage quickly led to the formation of several gay rights organizations.

Over the years, the anger and rebellion that fomented the gay rights movement have been largely replaced - at least in the mainstream media - by a more conservative message, a more inclusive, celebratory and conciliatory tone. The march turned into a parade, the words “Liberation” and “Freedom” were replaced with “Pride,” the focus on transgender rights and concerns was replaced by the fight for legalized gay marriage.

But this year, the rage and outrageousness that fueled the movement’s beginnings returned to the front pages and parade-goers’ conscienceness. On June 11, popular drag performer and Billboard chart-topping singer Kevin Aviance was attacked outside a gay bar in the East Village. He was robbed and savagely beaten by a group of men who yelled “Kill the faggot” and pelted him with garbage.

Suffering from a broken jaw and requiring extensive physical therapy, it appeared that he would be unable to participate, as scheduled, in the parade’s after-party.

However, two days before the march he told the New York Post, “I am getting my mouth unwired for one day, so that I can be done up for the Gay Pride Day Parade on Sunday.” And so he did. Today he made a triumphant return to the public eye, riding Hannibal-like on the back of an elephant while waving to the ecstatic, cheering, wildly proud crowd.