New York City’s Easter Parade dates back to at least the 1870s but we can only imagine what Victorian ladies would have to say about the flamboyant costumes and bonnets on in 2019 as thousands strolled up Fifth Avenue from 49th to 57th Street, with a hubbub of activity on the steps outside steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Originally, fashionable turn-of-the-century ladies would wear their finest finery to Easter Mass and area churches would be festooned with increasingly ornate floral arrangements. The spirit of spectacle became more and more primary, though, until now the event is essentially a secular celebration of fashion, frivolity, and extravagance. Some still wear their (Easter) Sunday best, of course, though they were outnumbered by the participants—couples, drag queens, families and even pets—in outré costumes.
