For millions of people it seems as necessary for the holiday as turkey, football games, and an afternoon nap.
Most spectators see the parade on television.
Immigrant Macy's workers founded the first parade in 1924 in the manner of a European-style festival. They created floats, borrowed animals from the Central Park Zoo, and enlisted professional bands. On Thanksgiving Day, the employees costumed themselves as cowboys, knights, and sheiks. The whole montage paraded from 145th Street to 34th Street while over a quarter of a million cheering people lined the streets and crowded windows and balconies. Since then, the parade has marched on through the Depression, the days following President Kennedy's assassination, and rain, sleet, and hail.