Blame the Irish

I love parades. Mostly they make little sense. People get together at one place and walk to someplace else. Usually with signs so everyone else will know why. Often with music, marching bands, odd outfits and lots of other stuff. New York City is great on parades. We have about a zillion of them every year. Sometimes people parade because they all agree on something. Or are all against something. Most of our parades are put on by folks who moved here from someplace else. Or more to the point, by folks who's relatives moved here. Parades here require permits form the City. Once as part of a project I was working on, friend at Police Headquarters let me see the then current stack of parade permit applications. It was a tall stack.

As for who started this parading business here, it is probably fair to blame the Irish. The St. Patrick's Day Parade dates from 1763, a date which predates the ones in Ireland (a fact that Americans of Irish ancestry often point to with much glee!) A few score years later, when the Irish were running New York City, some Irish politicians passed a law that says any parade that has been held continually for 100 years or more does not require a parade permit.

Moving on: starting around the time the Clans gather in mid-March, and the center line down Fifth Avenue is somehow painted green the night before, it is a rare weekend when we don't have one group or another (more often several) marching along our Avenues. Today, it was India's turn. It was overcast and sort of drizzling most of the day. Maybe not the best for marchers, but in this kind of weather where colors can photograph beautifully: professionally speaking, colors pop. And these folks are big on color, so I got lots of pops. The Parade started 3 hours late. I have been to India, so I had an idea of about when to show up and timed it right. Turned out to be a fun day. Despite the weather, there were lots of happy people. A bit damp, but having a good time, and they didn't seem to mind me budding into it.

So, some snapshots: