tradition

Macy’s legendary Thanksgiving Day Parade will celebrate its 92nd year on November 22, 2018. Although the parade takes place in Manhattan, New York, it actually began as a costume parade in Newark, New Jersey. It used to consist of live animals, bands, and floats. Beginning in 1927, the live animals were replaced by animal-shaped balloons. The parade was so popular that by 1933, there were a million people who came to watch and experience the wonder of this event. The first time it was broadcast on television was in 1948, and it has continued to air every Thanksgiving morning ever since.

The stone streets billow with pedestrians, taxis, delivery trucks, Fiats, mopeds, and pigeons. Every one in ten Italiani is walking a dog. A one legged pigeon hops quickly away from a curly-haired toddler whose sole intend is chasing down the cagey, little creature. The perfume of restaurants mingles with the heavy presence of cigarette smoke. Groups of tourist mosey through the streets and it would seem like the average Sunday afternoon in Siena, Italy . . . until the drums start. As the cobbled streets twist and intersect, so do the crowds, waiting around every corner for the cadence and it’s carriers. Then without warning three boys in medieval attire blossom into view. In the lead is the drummer followed by two flag bearers whose broad weeping movements brush over the closest pedestrians. These boys belong to the Contrada Capitana dell’Onda, the Wave Contrada. Their legs are clad in light blue and white stockings with matching tunics and caps. The small procession stares forward, well-rehearsed and unphased by the crowds.

It might be hard to know how to celebrate your wedding when your family backgrounds come from several different cultures. Nicole and James Goldberg, residents of Pleasant Grove, Utah, decided that their wedding would include elements from four family, religious, and cultural traditions: Nicole’s Danish heritage, James’s Sikh and Jewish heritage, and their shared LDS heritage.