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
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
- Smorgasburg Eat in the open.
- Chinatown See the Lunar New Year.
- Arthur Avenue Visit the Bronx's Little Italy.
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.
🇺🇸 New York, United States and 2 moreSalsa
A lively Latin partner dance rooted in Afro-Caribbean rhythms and social dance traditionsPerformance
🇮🇳 Kolkata, IndiaJana Gana Mana
India's national anthem, from a Bengali hymn of 1911, sung at civic occasionsCeremony
🇺🇸 New York, United StatesVillage Halloween Parade
An annual costumed puppetry march through Greenwich Village on Halloween nightFestival
🇮🇪 Dublin, Ireland and 2 moreIrish stepdance
A percussive dance form with swift, intricate footwork and an upright torsoPerformance
🇲🇽 Guadalajara, Mexico and 1 moreMariachi
A Mexican string and trumpet music tradition featuring charro attire and communal singing.Performance
🇺🇸 New York, United States and 5 moreKlezmerקלעזמער
An Ashkenazi Jewish instrumental tradition of lively dance tunes and ritual melodiesPerformance
🇩🇴 Santiago, Dominican Republic and 3 moreMerengue
A fast-paced folk dance and music tradition born in the Dominican RepublicPerformance
🇨🇭 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
🇮🇶 Kufa, Iraq and 5 moreArabic calligraphykhatt (خَطّ)
Artistic handwriting of the Arabic script, practiced as a sacred craft and a living visual tradition.Craft
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Mariachi: Elidealista, CC0, source
- Jana Gana Mana: Rabindranath Tagore, Public domain, source
- Feast of San Gennaro: MusikAnimal, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Merengue: Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- West Indian Day Parade: Fordmadoxfraud, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Klezmer: Unknown artist identified as "M.D.", Public domain, source
- Salsa: Edil Villa, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Irish stepdance: John Benson, CC BY 2.0, source
- Village Halloween Parade: InSapphoWeTrust, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Yodeling: Paebi, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Arabic calligraphy: Aieman Khimji, CC BY 2.0, source