Christchurch Santa Parade

[ravenya03]

Last weekend, Christchurch had its annual Santa Parade, and though it had to be re-routed in order to avoid the earthquake damage (heck, the usual route goes down streets that are still cordoned off two years later!) there were still a ton of people who turned out to see it. I’ve been going to this since I was a little girl, and see no reason to

Comments

[fairycutie86]

This looked like so much fun! And very creative floats, too. Thanks for sharing! I think my faves were the fairytale inspired ones. And Gangnam style managed to sneak it's way in? LOL!

[ravenya03]

Some of those floats are at least thirty years old! There are pictures of me as a little girl on my dad's shoulders watching the Humpty Dumpty/Cinderella floats. This time around I was amazed at how well-maintained they are.

And yes, Gangnam style is everywhere!

[sylvi10]

These are fantastic pictures! Looks like so much fun!

I just want to agree with you that I LOVE parades, too, and have tried to figure out exactly what it is about them. I finally decided that is has something to do with an unspoken social contract that exists: lots of people will walk down the street (or dance, or tumble, or ride, etc), and lots of other people agree to come out and watch and support them and applaud. It's just so generous and good-spirited at a very basic level. So I think it has something to do with that . . . Plus, they are just fun.

The ones where I live are not nearly as elaborate as this, but we have many, and they are all full of local pride and quirkiness. My favorite thing from this past year was the librarians who marched with their book carrels and did the cutest little choreographed maneuvers all through the parade route! They got the loudest cheers, too. :)

We don't have a Christmas parade here, so thanks for sharing these pictures! It's also kind of neat, for me, to see people with bare arms in

[ravenya03]

Christmas definitely means a very hot summer in New Zealand!

Re: the appeal of parades, I think it may be that they're outside of the norm - that streets are taken over by floats and performers instead of traffic

You've made me start wondering as to how and why exactly parades began... they're probably older than we think, as I'm just imagining villagers lining up in order to watch soldiers/knights/kings/courts and so on riding by.