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2015 Persian Day Parade Celebrates Iranian Culture
Article, Photos and Video – Len Rapoport and Andy Peeke
April 19, 2015….Many cultures celebrate the change in the seasons but those of Persian or as we know them today Iranian decent celebrate in dance, colorful costumes and a display of their culture by throwing one of the biggest parties New Years parties on the streets of New York. We had the pleasure of meeting the parade organizations president Kambiz Mofrad and their director of communications Betty Emamian.
The Parades History
The Persian Day Parade started 12 years ago by a group of Iranian philanthropists who decided that a parade would be a wonderful way to celebrate the Persian New Year, also known as Nowruz and marks the first day of spring and it was indeed another beautiful day.
This celebration had been held in March, but due to the poor and unpredictable weather they agreed to move it to mid-April. Not a bad decision, since March can be a brutal month and already has its Greek Independence Day Parade and of course the St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
This was the 12th year of this parade and took place on Madison Avenue from 38th Street to 24th Street and began at noon. Their website states:
Persian Parade is a none-profitable cultural organization with no affiliation to any political or religious group. The main activity of the Persian Parade Inc. is to organize, promote, facilitate, and conduct a cultural Persian parade on the Second Week of April .
As thousands of spectators lined the streets and parade participants marched or floated down Madison Ave., you could see that this was not only a parade for those of Persian decent, but a parade for everyone. If you look at a map of the Persian Empire you can see it covered a number of cultures and nations.
Our Parade Video
Why The Name Change to Iran?
In 1935 Rez Shah requested that the international community refer to the country as Iran. Opposition to the name change led to the reversal of the decision, and in 1959 both names were to be used interchangeably.Today both “Persia” and “Iran” are used interchangeably in cultural contexts; however, “Iran” is the name used officially in political contexts…Wikipedia
As I have always said a picture may be worth a thousand words. so I have included a selection of my photos and a video as well. I think I need not bore you with thousands of words and in this article will let my photos and video do all the talking.
This article has also been published in our sister publication IMPress Magazine.
