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.
🇮🇪 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
🇮🇪 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
🇮🇱 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 StatesWampum
Shell beads woven into belts by Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands for record-keeping and ceremony.Folklore
🇨🇳 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
🇺🇸 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
🇷🇺 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.
- Jack-o'-lantern: Toby Ord, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Trick-or-treating: Toyah Anette B, Public domain, source
- Feast of San Gennaro: MusikAnimal, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Dreidel: Adiel lo, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Fortune-telling: Taras Shevchenko, Public domain, source
- West Indian Day Parade: Fordmadoxfraud, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Wampum: Museuvalenciaetnologia, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Joss paper: Vmenkov, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Maximón: Sapfan (Jan Pesula), Public domain, source
- Statue rubbing: Matthias Rosenkranz, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Black wedding: American Colony Photo Department, Public domain, source