When was the last time you give thanks either to God, love ones, relatives, friends and to fellowmen? Well giving thanks to God is a must because He created us, and in every moment because He has been caring and providing us with all our daily physical needs. We will never sustained life in this earth even for a single minute without his loving care and divine protection. But to our fellow human beings, giving thanks is dependent on the person’s upbringing, practice and culture. Then, what is generally and socially accepted standards of giving thanks? Well the most common, basic and generally accepted practice is when you receive a favor, a help or possibly a recipient of the benefits from other person. Thanksgiving may be expressive and demonstrative where you will see concrete actions and tangible things and another manner is the passive way of just being silent and giving perhaps a smile.
Today many people in the world are not only giving thanks individually but in groups, corporate settings or government units. And to mention one of the many cities which is celebrating thanksgiving is the City of Chicago and they are commemorating it as an annual affair called the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade and for this year it kicks off on November 26, 2009. A new development is the renaming of the affair to McDonald’s Thanksgiving Day Parade which has been celebrated for over 70 years and this is presented by the Chicago Festival Association (CFA). This is highlighted with a 3-hour street parade in downtown Chicago attended by over 100 participating “units”. This also features giant tethered helium balloons, local celebrities, marching bands, dancers, floats, horses, drill teams, circus performers and many more and upon going home the celebrants traditionally feasted on roasted turkey. The event is telecast live locally on WGN-TV and nationally on WGN America and the live spectators of the event are estimated to reach 400,000. This is really an exciting event to watch personally and people from around the globe who want to witness the event can easily come and avail of the Chicago cheap flights promotional offering.
The original intention of the parade was to boost the morale of the people and to help them feel better during the US great depression. In 1934 during this period many leaders in Chicago were disheartened; thus, triggering them to look for ways to uplift the economy and the public spirit as well. One of the leaders, Walter Gregory, President of Chicago’s State Street Council, suggested a plan of a Christmas parade to Chicago Mayor Edward Kelly with the expectation of lifting up the perceptions and feelings of the general public. The mayor approved and in December 7, 1934 the first Chicago’s Christmas Parade was held on the State Street. Many of the leaders and some residents considered it not as a parade but rather as a caravan. With much optimism of the leaders the event really resulted to the desired growth of the economy and for the first time since 1927 Chicago experienced the biggest buying holiday period.
There were considerable changes that the organization has made since the time they started and in 2002, the Chicago Festival Association (CFA) replaced the format of the parade from a Christmas Parade to Thanksgiving parade that it is today. A lot of people were surprised because in a few years time the number of spectators on the streets has increased tremendously. In addition the number of participating cities has swelled from a handful to a majority in just two years time. Finally since 2006 the Chicago Festival Association has partnered with McDonald’s as the parade sponsor. In 2007, another innovation was made by CFA wherein they invited pop rock group Plain White T’s to perform in the parade for free. In 2008 the parade celebrated its 75th anniversary which was broadcast live nationwide for 3 hours by WGN and WGN America and the first for Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade. There were leading local companies which participated in the event such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum &Bailey and generally the event was considered as successful.
The spectacular Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade has becoming popular not only in Chicago and Illinois but even to the whole American populace. This is evident by the participation of the local residents and reception and interest of the people from outside Chicago. For people who may be interested to come and witness the event and perhaps may be hindered by finances, you need not to worry because there is still a way of overcoming it. There is a great package deal which makes your visit to the city on the Thanksgiving Day Parade a success through the Chicago cheap flights promotional offering and this is available from your travel agents.
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