[box_light]2019 New York’s Persian Day Parade [/box_light]
Article and Photos – Len Rapoport
April 19, 2019….Many cultures celebrate the change in the seasons but those of Persian (Iranian) decent celebrate in dance, colorful costumes and a display of their culture by taking to the streets of New York.
[box_light]The Parades History[/box_light]
The Persian Day Parade started 16 years ago by a group of Iranian philanthropists who decided that a parade would be a wonderful way to celebrate the Persian New Year, also known as Nowruz and marks the first day of spring and it was indeed another beautiful day.
This years parade coincided with the Greek Independence Day Parade which in past years was the same day as the St. Patricks Day Parade.
The parade took place on Madison Avenue from 38th Street to 27 th Street and began at noon.
This year the parade was much smaller than previous years and we decided to pick a spot on 27th Street close to the end of the parade route. Not many spectators lined the streets and the parade participants were fewer than we have seen in previous parades.
There were wide gaps between groups and floats this year and I wonder how many more years this parade will continue. We love to cover parades in New York and even though this was a bit dissappointing it was still fun meeting and speaking to some of the spectators.
[box_light]Why The Name Change to Iran?[/box_light]
In 1935 Rez? Sh?h requested that the international community refer to the country as Iran. Opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and in 1959 both names were to be used interchangeably.Today both “Persia” and “Iran” are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, “Iran” is the name used officially in political contexts…Wikipedia
We shot photos of the parade and the participants, but as you can see there were not many attendees. Possibly because some had gone to see the Greek Parade or possibly because this parade was much smaller than in previous years, not as many sponsors and they didn’t have the additional festivities at the end of the parade.
At the end of the parade there were some food trucks and a gathering of Iranians singing and enjoying their fellow country men and woman in the welcome to the Spring in New York.
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