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A 'parade' is an organized procession of people along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by floats or sometimes large lighter-than-air balloons with complex shapes. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually celebrations of some kind. In Britain the term parade is usually reserved for either military parades or other occasions where participants march in formation. For celebratory occasions the word procession is more usual.
Protest demonstrations also sometimes take the form of a parade, but in such cases are usually referred to as a march instead.
The parade float got its name because the first floats were decorated barges that were towed along canals with ropes held by parade marchers on the shore. Today, parade floats are traditionally pulled by motor vehicles or powered themselves.
Since the advent of technology, it is possible for aircraft and boats to parade. A flypast is an aerial parade of anything from one to dozens of aircraft, both in commercial context at airshows and also to mark, e.g., national days or significant anniversaries. They are particularly common in the United Kingdom, where they are often associated with Royal occasions. Similarly, for ships, there may be a sail-past of, e.g., tall ships, as was seen during Trafalgar 200 - or other sailing vessels as during the celebrations of the 60th anniversary of World War II. The longest parade in the world is the "Marksmen's Parade" and takes place in Hanover every year during the Schützenfest. The parade is 12 kilometres long with more than 12.000 participants from all over the world, among them more than 100 bands and around 70 floats and carriages.

Contents

Types of parades

Parade examples

Observances marked by parades

See also

External links

Types of parades

★ Cavalcade - usually of horses or vehicles, rather than people

★ flypast

★ parade of horribles

★ pride parade

★ Santa Claus parade

★ technoparade

★ Marksmen's Parade

★ ticker-tape parade

★ Military parade

★ victory parade

★ walking day

Parade examples

★ Calgary Stampede Parade

★ Liberty Fest Edmond Oklahoma

★ Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

★ Mardi Gras New Orleans

★ Main Street Electrical Parade

★ Marksmen's Parade Hannover

★ May Day Parade Russia

★ Mummers Parade

★ New York's Village Halloween Parade

★ Notting Hill Carnival

★ Orange Bowl Parade

★ Orlando Citrus Parade

★ Philippine Independence Day Parade

★ Procession of the Species

★ Republic Day Parade Indian national celebration

★ Saint Patrick's Day Parade New York, Boston

★ The Celebrate the Season Parade, presented by Macy's & WPXI/Pittsburgh

★ Toronto Santa Claus Parade

★ Tournament of Roses Parade

★ Vikingland Band Festival Parade Marching Championship

★ Walt Disney World Christmas Day Parade

★ West Country Carnival

★ 500 Festival Parade

Observances marked by parades

★ Caribana

★ Carnival

★ Christmas

★ Independence Day

★ Labour Day

★ Mardi Gras

★ New Year's Day

★ Schützenfest

★ Thanksgiving

★ St. Patrick's Day

See also

★ Pageant

★ Procession

★ Trooping the Colour

★ Lord Mayor's Show

External links

★ Labor Day parade descriptions