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EveryParampara

Traditions of New York

A city of immigrants, whose Thanksgiving parade, Lunar New Year and Puerto Rican Day all share the avenues.

New York City has welcomed more peoples to the United States than any other port, and its calendar of parades and festivals reflects them. Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, the St. Patrick's Day parade, and the Puerto Rican Day parade are held on the avenues, and neighbourhoods hold street feasts for their saints.

Parades and feasts

The Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy and the Lunar New Year parade in Chinatown draw crowds. On Thanksgiving morning, giant balloons fly down Central Park West. On New Year's Eve, a ball drops in Times Square. Diwali and Eid are public school holidays, and Caribbean communities hold the West Indian American Day Carnival in Brooklyn at Labor Day.

At the table

Bagels with lox, pizza by the slice, hot dogs, pastrami sandwiches and black-and-white cookies are the city's daily bites. Dim sum in Flushing, halal carts, and arepas in Queens show the mix. Egg creams are a soda fountain classic. Thanksgiving dinner of turkey, cranberry and pumpkin pie is the most widely shared family meal of the year.

Signature traditions of New York

Feast of San GennaroThe street fair.West Indian Day ParadeThe carnival.

Also part of it, and being written: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (The parade.), New York-style pizza (The slice.), Bagel (The roll.).

A trail idea for New York

  1. Smorgasburg Eat in the open.
  2. Chinatown See the Lunar New Year.
  3. Arthur Avenue Visit the Bronx's Little Italy.
About this page

Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Opening hours, markets and festival dates change; check locally before travelling. Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.

KindSpiritualFestivalRite of passageTable customSeasonalDressPerformanceEtiquetteCraftGameFolkloreHomeCeremony
MealBreakfastLunchDinnerSupperTea-time and snacking customsTea, coffee and drinking ceremoniesSweets given and sharedFeasts and festival mealsFasting and breaking the fast
🇮🇹 Rome, Italy and 4 moreChristmas A festival of Jesus's birth, kept on 25 December with gifts, lights and shared mealsFestival 🇮🇪 Ireland and 5 moreHalloween An annual observance on 31 October marking the eve of All Saints' Day, rooted in Christian tradition and Celtic heritageFestival · Sweets given and shared 🇮🇱 Jerusalem, Israel and 1 moreHanukkahחֲנֻכָּה An eight-day Jewish festival marking the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem and the miracle of a single day'Festival 🇺🇸 New York, United States and 4 moreFeast of the Ascension The fortieth day of Easter, when Christians remember Jesus being taken up into heavenSpiritual 🇮🇪 Ireland and 4 moreTrick-or-treating A custom where children visit homes in costume to ask for treats or face a playful prank.Festival · Sweets given and shared 🇮🇳 Kolkata, IndiaJana Gana Mana India's national anthem, from a Bengali hymn of 1911, sung at civic occasionsCeremony 🇮🇱 Israel and 3 moreDreidelדרײדל (Yiddish); סביבון (Hebrew) A four-sided top spun for small stakes, most often by Jewish families at HanukkahGame 🇺🇸 New York, United States and 1 moreFortune-telling Reading cards, palms or tea leaves to tell a client what may lie aheadFolklore 🇺🇸 New York, United StatesNavajo weavingdiyogí Handwoven wool textiles and rugs made on continuous warps by Navajo artisansCraft 🇺🇸 New York, United States and 2 moreSalsa A lively Latin partner dance rooted in Afro-Caribbean rhythms and social dance traditionsPerformance 🇮🇪 Dublin, Ireland and 2 moreIrish stepdance A percussive dance form with swift, intricate footwork and an upright torsoPerformance 🇺🇸 New York, United StatesVillage Halloween Parade An annual costumed puppetry march through Greenwich Village on Halloween nightFestival 🇺🇸 New York, United StatesFlag Day An annual American observance marking the 1777 adoption of the national flagCeremony 🇲🇱 San, Mali and 1 moreBògòlanfinibɔgɔlanfini A handmade Malian cotton textile dyed with iron-rich mud, worn for protection and identity.Dress 🇺🇸 New York, United StatesGhost Dance A circle dance ceremony kept by Native American communities to reunite with ancestors and restore peace.Spiritual 🇺🇸 New York, United StatesRockefeller Center Christmas Tree A towering spruce lit annually in New York City to mark the start of the holiday season.Festival 🇺🇸 New York, United StatesWampum Shell beads woven into belts by Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands for record-keeping and ceremony.Folklore 🇵🇭 Manila, Philippines and 5 moreNovena A nine-day Christian prayer tradition for petitions, feasts, or mourning.Spiritual 🇲🇽 Guadalajara, Mexico and 1 moreMariachi A Mexican string and trumpet music tradition featuring charro attire and communal singing.Performance 🇮🇱 Jerusalem, Israel and 1 moreShemini Atzeretשְׁמִינִי עֲצֶרֶת The eighth day of assembly, kept right after Sukkot with a prayer for rainSpiritual 🇺🇸 New York, United States and 1 moreFeast of San GennaroFesta di San Gennaro A patronal festival of parades, street food and prayer honouring Saint JanuariusFestival · Tea-time and snacking customs 🇮🇳 India and 2 moreLangarਲੰਗਰ The free kitchen at a gurdwara, where all sit and eat together as equalsTable custom 🇺🇸 New York, United States and 1 moreEaster parade A festive Easter Sunday stroll featuring stylish clothes and elaborate bonnetsFestival 🇩🇴 Santiago, Dominican Republic and 3 moreMerengue A fast-paced folk dance and music tradition born in the Dominican RepublicPerformance 🇺🇸 New York, United States and 5 moreKlezmerקלעזמער An Ashkenazi Jewish instrumental tradition of lively dance tunes and ritual melodiesPerformance 🇺🇸 Washington, United StatesUnited States presidential inauguration The formal swearing-in ceremony and celebrations for a new United States presidentCeremony 🇮🇱 Jerusalem, Israel and 3 moreHanukkah menorah A nine-branched lamp that gains one more flame on each of Hanukkah's eight nightsSpiritual 🇨🇭 Appenzell, Switzerland and 5 moreYodeling A singing style switching between chest voice and falsetto, kept as a folk tradition across the Alps and globally.Performance 🇨🇳 China and 5 moreJoss paper金紙 (jīnzhǐ) Paper money burned for ancestors and gods, folded and offered in Chinese worshipSpiritual 🇬🇹 Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala and 3 moreMaximón A folk saint of the Guatemalan highlands, asked for health, crops and protectionFolklore 🇮🇱 Israel and 3 moreKashrutכַּשְׁרוּת (Hebrew) The Jewish dietary laws: what may be eaten, and how it is preparedTable custom 🇮🇶 Kufa, Iraq and 5 moreArabic calligraphykhatt (خَطّ) Artistic handwriting of the Arabic script, practiced as a sacred craft and a living visual tradition.Craft 🇺🇸 New York, United States and 5 moreWorld Religion Day An annual day in January dedicated to spiritual unity and harmony across all faiths.Spiritual 🇺🇸 New York, United States and 5 moreBundling A traditional courtship practice where a couple shares a bed under supervision to ensure compatibility and accountabilitRite of passage 🇺🇸 United States and 5 moreStatue rubbing A global custom of touching public statues to seek luck, love, or a return to the city.Festival 🇨🇳 China and 3 moreBuddhist initiation受戒 A public ceremony where a lay follower takes refuge in the Triple Gem and accepts moral precepts.Spiritual 🇺🇸 New York, United StatesBark Mitzvah A lighthearted coming of age celebration held by dog owners for their petsFestival · Feasts and festival meals 🇷🇺 RussiaBlack wedding A traditional Jewish crisis wedding held in a cemetery to ward off diseaseSpiritual

Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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Every week: one tradition from somewhere new, what is being celebrated around the world this week, and one idea explained.