Easter parade

Persons participating in an Easter parade traditionally dress in new and fashionable clothing, particularly ladies' hats, and strive to impress others with their finery.

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.

[2] Easter processions or parades, often including special dress, have been part of Christian culture since its earliest beginnings.

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.

Beginning about 1782, German settlers in Pennsylvania held non-religious parades on Easter Monday, then widely celebrated as a holiday.

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.

[1][5] 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.

As the practice expanded, the floral displays grew ever more elaborate, and soon became defining examples of style, taste, abundance, and novelty.

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).

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".

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.

In 1929 Edward Bernays decided to pay women to smoke their "torches of freedom" as they walked in the Easter Parade in New York.

"[9] Once the footage was released, the campaign was being talked about everywhere, and the women's walk was seen as a protest for equality and sparked discussion throughout the nation and is still known today.

In 1925, Coney Island merchants hired fifty show girls to parade in bathing suits as part of the event.

The East Toronto Community Association organized the first parade in 1967, to mark Canada's Centennial year, with a route was along the boardwalk.