Question for non-Americans: Parades

In My Humble Opinion
1

Some questions about parades in foreign countries.

  1. When your community has a parade - why? Is it some special event? For example my community just had its fall parade. St. Patricks day is also a popular time for a parade.

  2. Are politicians in them? In the US current politicians like mayors, congressman, and city council members often ride in a open top car or maybe on the back of a truck or a wagon. They have a sign saying who they are and they wave to people. Also many candidates for office also will have a float and use it as a way to campaign. They often have volunteers handing out items.

  3. Do people throw candy at your parades?

  4. Do your high schools have marching bands that march and perform in parades?

  5. Do businesses, churches, or civic groups march in parades or have floats?

  6. Is there anything in your countries parades you think might be unique to your country or part of the world?

2

I do not participate in any parades – I am not an American.

3

They are taken to their dickish extreme in Northern Ireland.

4

Cameroon was big on parades. My small town would have a parade for Youth Day, Women’s Day, Teacher’s Day, National Day and Labor Day.

On Youth Day, Labor Day, National Day and Teacher’s Day, the relevant groups would march in groups according to whatever civic organizations they belonged to (schools, clubs, workplaces, etc.)

Clubs are a big deal in Cameroon, and most people belong to at least a couple of clubs. I belonged to a teacher’s club, a women’s club, and would sown times go to the English Speaker’s club. These clubs provide a social outlet, raise awareness for various causes, and usually have some sort of group savings system that serves as a bit of a financial safety net.

Usually at parades, marching groups would wear clothes made out of matching fabric. There is also “official fabric” issued for Women’s Day, Labor Day, Teachers Day (usually in your choice of two colors). Each year’s fabric is a big deal- it’s hotly anticipated, much discussed and sells out fast. Slow pokes have to make do with knock-off fabric from Nigeria. Most people wear the fabric if they can afford it. Part of the fun is seeing the outfits people (and their tailors) put together.

Parades would be held in the local soccer stadium. Politicians and traditional leaders would watch from the stands, along with local VIPs, while the crowd watched from the perimeter. Throwing candy wasn’t a thing, but kids might ask you for candy after. After the parades, most groups would have their own private celebrations.

Labor Day was my favorite. Everyone would march according to their occupation. Even the street vendors and kids who sell jerry cans of water would proudly march in matching tee-shirts. Most would carry the tools of their trade or something symbolic of their work. The grand finale was the parading of minibuses from the local transit company, followed by a massive showing of the town’s motorcycle taxi driver.

5

From England:

  1. Apart from the Notting Hill Carnival, various Pride parades and parades for victorious sport teams, I can’t remember any parades recently. When I was a young child in the 80s I remember going to Swanage (a seaside town) Carnival, which I think was an event put on mainly to promote tourism.

  2. Usually the mayor of the town and other local politicians would be involved, but not on the floats, but rather viewing it from some point prominent place along the parade (possibly giving out a prize for the best float). Whilst they would like to make themselves visible though, active political campaigning whilst performing the functions of your office would be a big no-no in England.

  3. Not that I remember

  4. Nope, I played in a brass band when I was younger and we were not affiliated with a school and we always played sitting down. Bands that play whilst marching would usually military bands or possibly the Salvation Army, though I expect in places like Swanage where they had a parade the local bands would march.

  5. Yes, the floats would be from precisely those groups

  6. Not particularly

6

Reporting answers from Sweden.

1

I can only think of three recurring parades in my community. The first one is 1:st of May which is a national holiday to celebrate the workers movements, then there used to be a parade part of the yearly carnival here but IIRC they got rid of that due to lack of interest. Lastly the high schools have parades when it’s graduation time.

2

Depends on the parade. There are always a big political presence at the 1:st of May since it is a political event, other than that not unless the event has a political theme, like a manifestation for a cause. If it’s a celebratory parade there is usually no political presence unless some elected official is going to hold a speech or introduce someone.

3

People do not throw candy here.

4

There are some marching bands but they are not a common phenomenon here as they are in the US. In my town I think only the high school that is specifically angled towards music has one.

5

No the parades are pretty much completely free of advertisement and promotion in that form.

6

I think ours are probably a bit more boring than most, but I bet they are also among the very safest. Sweden - We’re careful not to have too much fun, because somebody could get hurt.

7

Militaristic societies (notably, for example, the late unlamented Soviet Union; also modern-day North Korea) like to have military parades, showing off all their military hardware and precision-marching platoons of goose-stepping troops.

8
  1. When your community has a parade - why? …

The Cayman Islands has a parade during Cayman Batabano, our version of Carnival. There is actually one parade for adults and another (much more sedate and family friendly) one for children. Batabano is held in the spring.

  1. Are politicians in them? …
    Politicians may occasionally be in them, but as a participant in a group., They don’t ride on floats or in convertibles.

  2. Do people throw candy at your parades?
    No candy.

  3. Do your high schools have marching bands that march and perform in parades?
    No marching bands in the traditional sense with big brass instruments and woodwinds. We have steel pan, with at least one group composed of high school age kids.

  4. Do businesses, churches, or civic groups march in parades or have floats?
    Sure. All the above.

  5. Is there anything in your countries parades you think might be unique to your country or part of the world?

We have many groups that put on elaborate costumes quite similar to Brazilian Carnival. This is quite unusual for our usually staid and conservative island.

9

Israelis aren’t big on parades, and we don’t have any marching bands. In fact, Tel Aviv only has one parade each year, but it’s a big one, with over 100,000 people taking part last June. I’m talking, of course, about the gay pride parade.

10

Same here in Scotland. Pretty much the only people who march are the Orange Order (religious bigots) and the Pride Parades (fabulous folk, usually being picketed by religious bigots).

11

I am an American but I was stationed near Mainz for a few years. Their version of carnival/mardi gras is big in that that part of the country. There is a big fasching parade in the city. It’s on Rosenmontag (Rose Monday) the Monday before Ash Wednesday instead of Fat Tuesday. The towns around there had parades too on Monday or over the weekend. A lot more clothing than New Orleans. Germany is damn cold in February.

12

Leaving aside national/royal occasions like Trooping the Colour (which is purely military) and Jubilees (the Queen’s Golden Jubilee had a sort of community parade with all sorts of floats marking events of the reign and community and voluntary organisations in various formations), there are local carnivals complete with Carnival Queen and local organisations putting themselves on show. I suspect there may be fewer of them now, but it’ll vary from community to community. One I would add to the list for London is the Lord Mayor’s Show, which marks the inauguration of each year’s new Lord Mayor of the City (i.e., the mediaeval City, now the central business/legal area) - that’s probably closest to a US-style parade.

Not usually in the UK. Where there’s a mayor (=chosen to be the non-party civic head for the year), possibly, but someone using a community carnival to promote a candidature for election would not be popular. In any case, most such events don’t take place when there’s an election on, but if they did do this, any expenditure on it would count against expenditure limits (which are pretty low in local elections).

Not in my experience, but it’s not unknown for charities to hand out flyers or rattle collecting tins as they go along, but that does tend to slow things up.

In a really local event in the UK, any bands would traditionally be the local Scouts or Boys’ Brigade or some cadet organisation, possibly some baton twirlers, maybe the Salvation Army. Marching bands as you have them aren’t that common in the UK, and not usually based in schools. Nowadays, and not only at the Notting Hill Carnival, it might well be a steel band. I’ve seen some fantastic samba drummers at Pride in London A bigger civic event, like the Lord Mayor’s Show has many bands from military units associated with the City.

Yes, you would see all sorts of community groups involved. The Lord Mayor’s Show showcases all sorts, from the different livery companies (descendants of the mediaeval guilds), to all sorts of charities, educational institutions and social support groups particularly associated with or supported by the City, and some business/trade/promotional floats.

Lord Mayor’s Show

13

  1. In Spain they tend to be religious; the biggest ones are for the Epiphany (the Three Kings’ parade), for Easter (Semana Santa), and for whatever the local Fiestas are. If they’re religious and serious they’re called procesiones, if not desfiles.

  2. Politicians may attend the parade (either walking in it or watching it) if it is required by their position, they may also do it as private individuals. For several years, LEOs and soldiers were forbidden from attending religious parades, but that got removed as soon as the political sign swung back.

  3. The Three Kings and other Christmas parades throw candy, not the rest (in general). It would be kind of weird to have an Ecce Homo or an image of Our Lady in Mourning parading at the slowest possible speed their carriers can bear, and throwing candy. A row of tanks or legionarios throwing candy around would be only slightly less weird; candy thrown from overflying planes would be considered a safety risk and frowned upon.

  4. Marching bands are usually not associated with schools; they may be present at some parades. There are bandas municipales paid by city hall (in towns with one there will often be free weekly concerts) and charangas formed by groups of friends or sponsored by civic associations, these last ones being noisier, more informal and less preoccupied with being in the neighborhood of the official notes.

  5. “Floats” akin to the American ones are pretty much only present in Christmas events. See 2. for whether politicians are present. Civic groups (hermandades, peñas…) may march in parades; there are even locations (Seville is the most famous one) where the different Hermandades de Semana Santa each have their own parade, rather than getting grouped up.

  6. Nah, not really. Anything we do is likely to also be present in Italy or Latin American countries, or even in the Benelux (I have no idea who copied whose giants, for example, but they exist in both places). Different specific locations have their own local peculiarities (see above re. Seville’s Easter parades; Sitges’ flower carpets for Corpus are also pretty famous but again not unique, Brussels does them in Spring).

14

Two days that feature parades in Montreal are St. Patrick’s Day and Nov. 11, which is semi-military. I have no idea whether politicans take part. HSs don’t have marning bands (or football teams, for that matter). AFAIK, no one throws candy. Or necklaces. I haven’t seen floats either.

15

I guess you all dont have Shriners? LINK

Yes, thats grown men wearing funny hats driving tiny cars.

16

Toronto has parades for St Patrick’s Day, Pride (one for lesbians and one for everyone), Santa Claus, Labor Day, Caribbean Carnival and some Sikh thing, off the top of my head.

The Pride parade has lots of politicians, but they throw beads not candy. I think the Santa Claus parade might give out candy.

17

Australia here. We don’t do parades much, unless you count the sight of all the office workers heading to the pub at 5pm Friday:p

But, to answer the questions:

  1. Yeah, usually special event. Sydney has the annual Mardi Gras parade, Melbourne has Moomba (not sure if we still have the parade or not). So maybe 1 or 2 pa in two of the biggest cities.

  2. Not usually.

  3. Not really. If there were cars with wannabe or actual politicians in them, rocks may be thrown but not candy

  4. Generally No.

  5. Sometimes but not as a rule.

  6. Not really.

18

Britain: I’ve only ever seen one parade in my life ( they weren’t holding many through the twisty narrow ten-foot hedged roads depths of rural Devon when i was a kid ) and that was an Orange parade near the Lake District, prolly Whitehaven, which was a few men, maybe a few cars, marching along with majorettes and some form of band, as far as I recall. People were rather bemused.

The Orange Lodge apparently has a remarkable presence in that area, but tiny compared to Ulster or Scotland. A tiny faithful remnant of when Orangism was widespread throughout the British Isles, a natural extreme prottie off-shoot of freemasonry, nominally led * by the rougher princes of the usurping Guelphic line in honour of that usurpation in the 1830s. It’s like coming across the Plymouth Brethren out on a picnic; most English people have forgotten they existed — I wish in both cases I could say purposefully, but sadly it’s simple ignorance.

  • This position of figurehead is customary for such fake royalty.

The Purple Lodge never held parades. Being a lot more powerful, they didn’t have to.

19

You forgot the ANZAC Day parades ya drongo. :slight_smile:

ANZAC Day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps) commemorates returned soldiers/ancillary personnel from our involvement in wars around the world, but the day itself is remembered on the day the allies landed in Gallipoli in WW1. There are parades in every major city and often in many small towns as well. It’s BIG and has become more and more ‘commercialised’ over the years, with a huge industry built around it now, including pilgrimages to Turkey (esp this year as it was the 100th anniversary of the landing).

20

Oh, and I must add (as it’s happening this Friday, and the State Government has gazetted a public holiday for it, really? A public holiday for a sports game?? :rolleyes: ), the Grand Final Parade in Melbourne. Footy finals on Saturday (AFL) so the players in the two teams are driven around so the mad supporters can get an eyeful of their fave ruckman or full-forward.

How embarrassing to be a Melburnian