{"id":86481,"date":"2026-01-14T12:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/86481\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T12:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T12:20:08","slug":"even-the-elements-cant-stop-philadelphia-from-parading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/86481\/","title":{"rendered":"Even the elements can\u2019t stop Philadelphia from parading"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the same day that the World Champion Philadelphia Eagles ended their bid for a repeat championship in South Philly by losing to the San Francisco 49ers 23\u201319<\/a>, Philadelphia found another use for Lincoln Financial Field on Saturday, January 31st<\/a>. That afternoon, the Mummer\u2019s String Band Competition will go forward after being delayed due to dangerous weather on New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four hours after the 125th Official Mummer\u2019s Day Parade in Philadelphia \u2014 a 2026 celebration that was impacted due to weather conditions that even caused injuries and delayed the String Band Competition\u2014 here is what we learned about one of Philadelphia\u2019s oldest New Year\u2019s Day traditions: Philadelphia does a parade as well as any place in America.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When our metropolis officially began the tradition of a parade for the Mummer\u2019s back at the turn of the 20th century, it wasn\u2019t only that they necessarily thought that the grandeur of the tradition would flourish for the next 125 years, but rather because the very roots of the celebration had existed within modern Philadelphia\u2019s city limits for the some twenty decades prior.<\/p>\n

If you were fortunate enough to secure a spot on Broad Street last February for the Eagles Championship Parade \u2014 you know that even for a city whose NFL Franchise has only won two Super Bowls in its nearly 92-year history \u2014 we know how to celebrate. And our parades \u2014 from a Grand Federal Procession<\/a> in 1788 to an English Army celebration in Philadelphia\u2019s streets prior to ending a foreign occupation<\/a> a decade earlier to a euphoric wintertime commemoration of an NFL Championship<\/a> last February \u2014 one thing that Philadelphia knows<\/a> is its parades.<\/p>\n

One hundred and seven years ago this fall \u2014 amid a pandemic affecting both our region and the nation and a spreading sickness much like the covid pandemic \u2014 jubilant Philadelphians flooded<\/a> the streets in an unbridled show of celebration. In case you were the least bit curious about what would make the population of the city at that time forget about a global spread, a (virulent) disease that was running like wildfire throughout America and the chance of contracting and even possibly perishing like so many people, it was the chance to relieve yourself of the emotions of the end of another early 20th century nightmare. Armistice Day marked the end of the terror of World War I, a global conflict where Philadelphians had lost their lives in foreign lands.<\/p>\n

Five weeks earlier, Philadelphia had held the Liberty<\/a> Loans Parade \u2014 a gathering of some<\/a> 200,000 that is theorized to have been a super-spreader for some of the subsequent rising Spanish Flu cases in the city.<\/p>\n

This fall also marked ten years since the beginning of Philadelphia\u2019s Veteran\u2019s Day Parade that went from Broad and Walnut Streets and culminated at Independence Hall on a November Sunday in 2015. This fall\u2019s celebration kicked off near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and moved in the shadow of the Art Museum, finally concluding at Eakins Oval.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the Liberty Loans Parade back in 1918 wasn\u2019t the only parade in Philadelphia history that is not necessarily looked back upon with fondness. In June of 1778, the British ended their occupation of Philadelphia with a celebration called The Meschianza \u2014 which included an extravagant parade.<\/p>\n

But when it comes to parades in present-day America \u2014 Philadelphia\u2019s past is rich with significant historical gatherings. Our St. Patrick\u2019s Day Parade dates back to 1771 and during our Revolutionary War General George Washington even announced that it was a holiday<\/a> for Irish soldiers serving in the Army. And of course, our Thanksgiving<\/a> Day Parade dates from 1920, coordinated by Gimbel\u2019s Department Store right here in the city.<\/p>\n

At the top of our city\u2019s historical parades is perhaps our (most well-known) of all \u2014 our signature event of annual celebrations. It\u2019s believed that the very foundations of the modern Mummers Parade began<\/a> here around 1691. One hundred and twenty years ago<\/a> in 1901 was the first Mummer\u2019s Parade organized by the city.<\/p>\n

By then, the joyous traditions that the earliest residents in the city put together in the seventeenth century had roots going back to the ancient Egyptians, European influence, and even takes its name from Greek<\/a> mythology. The then-Tinicum part<\/a> of the city was treated by the Finnish and Swedish settlers to the very beginnings of a celebration (Second Day Christmas) that would soon become an unmistakable part of annual Philadelphia history. To this day, it is the oldest folk parade in America still held each and every year.<\/p>\n

Whether a twenty-first century parade on Veteran\u2019s Day, a commemoration of the end of World War I on Broad Street, or a 17th century celebration that would become the Mummers Parade and its official 1901 beginning as an official event in the City\u2014 those jubilant celebrations aren\u2019t just American. They are truly a part of Philadelphia \u2014 a part that doesn\u2019t just honor what is but rather what has been since European colonization between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers.<\/p>\n

Equally as important is that it honors what will be.<\/p>\n

Michael Thomas Leibrandt lives and works in Abington Township, PA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the same day that the World Champion Philadelphia Eagles ended their bid for a repeat championship in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[94,24242,6554,69,71,70],"class_list":{"0":"post-86481","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-history","9":"tag-mummers","10":"tag-parade","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","13":"tag-philadelphia-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}