The traditional Thanksgiving parade from New York, United States, was held this Thursday, although with a much shorter route and with hardly any audience, due to the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.
The giant floating balloons, floats and dance groups passed through some of the streets in the center of the Big Apple, starting from 34th Street, where the shopping center is located Macy’s, which gives its name and organizes this parade, born in 1924 and which in the United States is synonymous with the beginning of the Christmas holidays.
But the screams of the children, the fingers pointing to the new doll that turns the corner, or the little ones climbing on the shoulders of their parents were this year replaced by uniformed technicians and police that ensured that the event passed without incident beyond the rain that was registered on several occasions.
The strings of most giant balloons, like those of SpongeBob SquarePants or the character in the cartoon film “The Baby Boss” (“The boss baby” or “A boss in diapers”), traditionally held by dozens of volunteers to foot, they were now tied to small vehicles.
Only a few smaller ones, such as the red star of the Macy’s symbol, were carried by small groups of people wearing masks, like all the participants who traveled through downtown Manhattan on the floats.
Macy’s organized the show with a televised event, but without renouncing that the constructions offered by companies of all kinds, would take to the streets for a few hours.
Suspended parade representatives
The parade also made room for organizers of other traditional marches that were suspended after the outbreak of the pandemic, as representatives of “Saint Patrick’s Day” that was canceled for the first time in 258 years, or the “Mermaid Parade” (The march of the mermaids), which is organized in June in the Coney neighborhood Island and welcomes the summer season.
This year, the caravan also wanted to pay tribute to the Broadway theater shows and musicals that closed their doors last March, with brief performances of some of the most theatrical neighborhood plays in the country such as Hamilton or the Mean Girls, in addition from a bit of the show “Radio City Rockettes”, which this season has canceled its performances.
The organization also did not want to break with the tradition of the inclusion of new floats and this year the producer Warner Bross presented a float of the eternal persecution of the cartoons Tom and Jerry, and the cosmetics brand Olay participated with a construction of an astronaut that it demanded a greater participation of women in scientific disciplines.
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