crowd-pleasing parade

Let's get into the joyful mood of New York City's Easter Parade,
the annual festive strolling taken on Easter Sunday along Fifth
Ave. Started as a spontaneous event around 1870, probably
to honor Lenten holidays, it became increasingly popular
drawing thousands of people traditionally dressed in fancy
new clothes, funny costumes, homemade Easter bonnets
and crazy ladies' hats as well as parading lots of cute puppies
dressed to kill. Strollers, street performers, tourists (among
them a bunch of close friends of mine), onlookers and photo-
graphers filled Fifth Ave. from 50th to 57th streets yesterday
in the outlandish parade displaying stylish couples, young
and old people donning their Sunday best as well as the fine