The 82nd annual Columbus Day parade brought Italy to the city \u2014 behind the name of Italian-born explorer Christopher Columbus.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is our family. People we deal with every day. People we work with. The Italian-American community is a great community, especially right here in New York,\u201d Michael Sapraicone, parade chairman, said.<\/p>\n
Hosted by the Columbus Citizens Foundation, organizers say it\u2019s the largest celebration of Italian-American heritage in the country.<\/p>\n
Francesco Arachi came in from Tuscany Sunday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re feeling home. It\u2019s not our first time. We\u2019re here every year, but it\u2019s our first time in the Columbus Day \u2014 and we cannot skip this special day for us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The parade stretched along Fifth Avenue between 47th and 72nd streets.<\/p>\n
Performers and onlookers honored Italian contributions to America\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents came to this country for a better future. And we passed down our traditions to my children. And we love it. We love being Italian-American,\u201d Sara Amato, a parade attendee, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important because I feel a lot of people are forgetting their culture. They\u2019re just saying they\u2019re American, you know, they\u2019re not saying their heritage. So I think it\u2019s important to see that,\u201c Rosemary Grimaldi, another attendee, said.<\/p>\n
On Randall\u2019s Island, a celebration of tribal nations to honor Indigenous People\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a testament to the vibe of the country and the city that people really want to learn more about the inhabitants, the first people of New York that, you know, we say, Lenapehocking, which is the homeland of the Lenape,\u201d said Chief Cliff Matias, cultural director of Red Hawk Indigenous Art CounciL.<\/p>\n
The day of art and cultural performances told the stories of the First Nations in America.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe come here to celebrate our traditions, our cultures, and share space together and say that we are still here. We continue to strive and move forward,\u201d said Tarin Gonzalez, who attended the Indigenous People’s Day Parade.<\/p>\n
The two celebrations each honored traditions passed down for generations, hoping they\u2019ll be carried on for generations to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 82nd annual Columbus Day parade brought Italy to the city \u2014 behind the name of Italian-born explorer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2296,25,119456,231,9,24,55,54,12,56,27,200],"class_list":["post-371430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-top-stories","tag-carly-haynes","tag-human-interest","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-news","tag-ny","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}