FEW FANS, BIG DAY
Parade marches on without spectators, has first native land blessing
The show must go on — even if there’s nobody there to see it.
The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade went forward Thursday without the tens of thousands of New Yorkers who attend the famed event each year.
The procession of floats and Broadway performers who usually dance 2 ½ miles south down Central Park West to hordes of gleeful parade-goers was relegated to a one-block radius outside Macy’s flagship store by Herald Square.
Several performances were pretaped and there were just
a few present to cheer on the vibrant floats as they bobbed down 34th St. under the dark November skies, to keep in line with COVID-19 protocols and keep the crowds at bay.
Organizers of the iconic parade announced earlier this month that it would be scaled back a second time in light of surging coronavirus cases across the city.
“The plan is good. It’s not exactly what we wanted it to be, but I imagine everyone has a story like that in 2020,” executive producer Susan Tercero said Monday. “It was in the best interest of everybody to reduce our footprint.”
Although the event paled in comparison to Thanksgiving parades of yore, the fact it happened at all was a reason to celebrate. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Mermaid Parade, Puerto Rican Day Parade, Columbus Day Parade and NYC Pride March were all canceled this year due to the pandemic.
Family favorites Snoopy, Ronald McDonald and SpongeBob SquarePants weren’t missing in action, but some of their handlers were.
The parade’s most oversized balloons had their yarns tied to vehicles to lessen the number of people needed to keep things afloat.
Stars Dolly Parton and Darlene Love lent their voices with Christmas songs and a New York City Ballet ballerina twirled around to a piece from “The Nutcracker.”
The Rockettes danced their way to the finale, before the arrival of Santa on his sleigh.
And organizers brought something new to the parade to meet 2020’s expectations: Its first-ever native land acknowledgment and Wampanoag language blessing.
The historical performance, done in collaboration with consulting firm Indigenous Direction, featured a traditional rattle song and a blessing to honor the Wampanoag and Lenape people,
native tribes of the Northeast.
It also paid homage to Manhattan’s first residents, who lived there when it was called Manahatta.
“Creator and Ancestors, we honor you for all things. We honor the Lenape people of Manahatta. We honor all our relations because, long ago, we were here. Now we are here and we will always be here. And so it is,” the English translation of the blessing read.
The Wampanoag Tribe, also known as The People of the First Light, according to Indigenous Direction, have inhabited the east coast of Massachusetts for more than 12,000 years.
Their language was silenced for more than 150 years after colonized settlers forced the tribe’s assimilation.
But thanks to archived documents and historical papers authored by the Wampanoag people, its language and culture thrive today.