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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

Nothing matches those filters yet. Take one off, or check back: new traditions are written every day.

Photo credits on this page

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

The weekly EveryParampara

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