Yeyeong Chang and Lina Hsu
Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade has been going on for nearly a century, starting out as a Christmas parade. They called their store the “world’s largest store,” with an entire city block with more than 1 million square feet of retail space. In celebration, employees organized a Christmas parade featuring floats, bands, and animals from the zoo. Three years later, the Christmas parade was renamed the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
This year the parade hosted a variety of balloons, performers, and floats. The parade’s balloons included Bluey, Snoopy, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Goku, Leo, Kung Fu Panda, Stuart the Minion, SpongeBob SquarePants and Gary, Pillbury’s Doughboy, and many more. Along with that, floats from Sesame Street, Spirit of America, McDonald’s, Peacock, Kinder, Disney Cruise Line, and more, were featured. Performers such as Chicago, Enhyphen, Pentatonix, and Cher starred in the parade, along with marching bands including those from Alabama A&M University, Texas Tech University, Rutgers University, Greendale High School, and Fishers High School.
This year, the parade was interrupted by protesters in the streets of New York City in response to the ongoing war in the Middle East. When Hamas launched an attack on Israel in early October, Israel responded with airstrikes on Gaza. Many people came together across the U.S. to chant and march for both Palestinians and Israelis over the war.
As the parade went on, pro-Palestinian protesters ended up jumping police barricades, running into the street, and gluing themselves to the pavement, carrying paper with “Genocide Then, Genocide Now” written on it and yelling “Viva, viva Palestina.” This disruption caused the New York Police Department (NYPD) to be involved, which led to the arrest of 34 protesters in charge of criminal summons for trespassing and resisting arrest.
Later on, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden called into Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade broadcast on NBC, looking forward to unity. President Biden said, “We have to come together. You know, we can have different political views but we have one view. And the one view is that we are the finest, the greatest nation in the world. We should focus on that. We should focus on dealing with our problems and being together.”
The subject of the protest that took place during Macy’s parade has influenced many, being seen worldwide and as a result, having an impact on those being affected. Regardless of the controversy, it has drawn the biggest audience in telecast history, being seen by 28.5 million viewers, 6% higher than last year’s.