Regional differences underscore what makes Thanksgiving a national holiday in the first place.
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has a long and justifiable lock on the national culture. Since 1924 the parade has been a fixture synonymous with "turkey with the trimmings," and a more or less reliable start to the holiday mentality, if not the holiday season.
But others lay their claims to Thanksgiving Day parades that combine the national holiday with their own singular civic touches. Some fall directly in the holiday; one occurs the day after (in contrarian West Coast fashion); one straddles the limbo between Thanksgiving and Christmas. And one of them is older than Macy's big show.
As with the Macy's event, some of the parades have corporate sponsors, a sign of the times; and they're subject to the same economic headwinds as the people who'll turn out to see them. But their regional differences underscore what makes Thanksgiving a national holiday in the first place.
A giant balloon in the shape of the Liberty Bell is part of the annual Thanksgiving Day parade along Market Street in Philadelphia
Philadelphia
The New York Yankees- Philadelphia Phillies battle in the just-ended World Series wasn't necessarily the only arena for bragging-rights debate. The Macy's parade in the Big Apple gets all the attention, but the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day parade lays claim to being the nation's oldest. It began in November 1920 (four years before Macy's) when Ellis Gimbel, the founder of the department store chain that bore his family name until 1986, sent dozens of employees into the streets wearing costumes. Gimbel's ad hoc approach worked and grew to a city tradition. In a sign of the times, the sponsorship of the parade has changed hands frequently in past years; it's now formally known as the 6ABC IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade.
The Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day parade lays claim to being the nation's oldest.
But some things haven't changed. The event -- usually crowded with dancers, marchers, floats and a widely celebrated tap-dance performance by hundreds of dancers -- starts on Market Street, near where Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin lived and worked. Philadelphia's airborne parade route has been crowded with the cartoon menageries we've come to expect. In recent years, balloons of kid favorites from Hello Kitty to Paddington Bear sailed the skies. And the Philly parade has had star power rivaling Macy's glitz. Insiders say one of the best places to see the parade's end is at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (where the statue of Rocky still rules).
But some things haven't changed. The event -- usually crowded with
dancers, marchers, floats and a widely celebrated tap-dance performance
by hundreds of dancers