The 53d annual New York Marathon was run today through the five boroughs of New York City on a sunny day with ideal temperatures for the 50,000 runners. For one day, the city comes together in celebration and joy to cheer on runners from every state and country, of all ages and abilities, who have the tenacity to run 26.2 miles/42 kilometers through our streets.
Ghosts, goblins, and politics are all part of the beloved annual Greenwich Village Halloween Parade. The creativity and beauty of the costumes never fails to amaze and the marching bands are terrific. This year’s theme was Meow (Cats), reflecting political commentary in this presidential election season.
This year the blog went to St. Remy en Provence, France on a very special occasion: every year on Pentecost Monday, the Fete de la Transhumance is celebrated on the streets of the town. On this day, by tradition, the sheep are herded from their winter pastures in the lowlands up to the mountains for the summer to the delight of the townspeople. The Transhumance is also celebrated in Switzerland when cows are taken up to the Alps for the summer. These festivals are considered part of the Patrimoine Culturel Immateriel en France, or Intangible Cultural Heritage. It’s also a market day in the town and the crowds of mostly local people spend the rest of their holiday in the restaurants, brasseries, and plazas enjoying the fine spring weather and good meals.
Women in traditional dress head the procession
Next come the donkeys. They are not for show; they graze with the flock and are fierce protectors against wolves in the mountains, much more effective than the small sheepdogs.
The stars of the day arrive led by their shepherds.
It’s a river of sheep. The announcer with the microphone warned the spectators to stay on the sidewalks, and this is why.
The sheep are freshly shorn before the summer. Their wool is soft and highly prized and their milk is made into cheeses whose denominations (certifications of origin) are as closely regulated as wine.
Protests against the Israeli attack on Gaza have continued for months and the protesters built an encampment of the Columbia University campus. The encampment was forcibly removed by the New York City Police Department after the president of the university, Nemat (Minouche) Shafik, asked them to enter the campus which is private property. Over 100 student protesters were arrested. The resulting outrage among faculty and students has resonated nationwide. The encampment was set up again the next day.
April 21, 2024:
April 26, 2024:
The story sped around the world. A male Eurasian Eagle-owl named Flaco, bred in captivity and confined in a small cage in the Central Park Zoo for the first thirteen years of his life, was suddenly freed when a vandal sneaked into the zoo at night and cut the wire on his cage. At first the drama centered on whether he would be recaptured, but he eluded nets and traps set by zoo workers. Then the city held its breath for a week until Flaco hunted and killed his first rat, proving that he was capable of survival outside the zoo. Controversy raged in New York about whether the zoo was to blame for his escape and whether he should remain free. He was a weak flier at first and crashed into branches as members of the New York birding community followed him day and night. Soon he became a confident and strong flier and a competent hunter, and the city fell in love with him. His story was captivating: a caged bird somehow becoming free and learning to survive on his own. For one year, expert photographers like David Lei, Jacqueline Emery, Anke Frohlich, and others documented Flaco’s behavior and habits. But the city is a hostile environment for birds in general and raptors like owls in particular, and after spending an entire year as a free bird, Flaco abruptly crashed into a building and was found dead on the ground. The city mourned. A memorial at one of his favorite trees in Central Park on Sunday, March 4 attracted hundreds of mourners who left tributes around the tree and heard from speakers. Children’s drawings and letters, heartfelt letters from adults inspired by his story, flowers, stuffed owls, and votive candles surrounded the tree. The ceremony was live-streamed around the world and covered by local media, all for one beloved and unique owl.
Photographer Jacqueline Emery addressed the crowd
A mourner is nearly overcome with emotion
Photographer David Lei, well known bird photographer who documented Flaco’s year of freedom, read a moving tribute
David Lei’s photograph of Flaco on the grass was the centerpiece of the tribute
The Year of the Dragon was celebrated in New York’s Chinatown with a series of events that concluded with the 26th annual parade on February 25. Well attended this year, the parade stepped off on a sunny day and featured many dragons and dignitaries and politicians.
The first and fiercest dragon on Mott and Bayard Streets
Fireworks are prohibited, but spectators replace the fireworks with confetti to greet the dragons
Lion dancers on Mott Street
A group of lion dancers on Confucius Square
Governor Kathy Hochul (second from left) appeared under heavy security
This year, Senator Chuck Schumer was greeted with chants of “Cease fire now” by a group of parade spectators
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched in the parade
Young lion dancers from the De Soto School in Chinatown
Children firing confetti poppers after the parade
We’re glad it’s over, grasping at hope that 2024 will be better in New York and the world. Here are some faces of New York City in 2023.
October 12: 5 days after the Hamas attack on Israel, Jewish students held a silent vigil for the victims of the attack and the hostages on the Columbia University campus. The photograph shows a young man named Ilan Fiorentino who was killed in the attack.
Also on October 12, on the other side of Butler Library at Columbia University, pro-Palestinian students held a rally at the same time as the silent vigil opposite them. Many demonstrators covered their faces. There was no mention of Hamas.
October 31: the annual Greenwich Village Halloween parade
November 5: a jubilant runner spots his friends on entering Central Park near the finish line of the New York Marathon.
November 23: Spectators at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade react as a float passes on Central Park West
He’s not from New York, but this tuba player from Alabama became part of New York for a day when his university band was selected to march in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
December 23: In front of Trump Tower, man named Neil who has made his living for the past six years doing impersonations of Donald Trump had to take off his mask to do emergency repair of the nose.
Two days before Christmas, many parents took their children to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas tree. Some were warmly dressed and their parents bought them treats…
… and other children accompanied their mothers who sell balloons and cotton candy on the street to the more fortunate children.
The shortest day of the year has passed, winter has begun, and the holiday lights in Midtown Manhattan bring cheer through the cold evenings.
Bergdorf Goodman’s windows, always inventive and elaborate, with reflections of the buildings across Fifth Avenue. The theme this year was animals.
A light show featuring a giant kaleidoscope on the facade of Saks Fifth Avenue attracted enormous crowds. With music from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker and lights simulating fireworks, the spectacle was only three minutes long but unforgettable.
The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, iconic and on every American and international tourist’s holiday wish list.
Most New Yorkers never bothered looking at this – until Radio City Music Hall was closed for the pandemic and there was no Christmas tree in 2020.
The 97th annual Macy’s Parade kicked off from the American Museum of Natural History again this year, led by a marching band and featuring floats, enormous balloons, confetti, entertainers, and a huge and enthusiastic crowd lining the parade route. The logistics of coordinating the parade, making it secure, and handling the balloons are impressive. The parade is of course very commercial and the subtext is to start buying Christmas presents at Macy’s, where else? What any of it has to do with a famous dinner held in Massachusetts in 1621 is beyond the scope of this post, but if you’re a New Yorker it’s part of our beloved tradition.
The turkey float and its escorts preparing to march on Central Park West, startling a flock of pigeons
The Alabama A&M University Marching Band led off the parade
Marching down Central Park West
These people arrived at 5:30 AM to get bleacher seats for a parade that started at 8:30. They were cold but very enthusiastic.
The Smokey Bear balloon from the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service is a perennial favorite at the parade.
Another turkey float passes the American Museum of Natural History
Controlling the balloons is difficult and carefully choreographed. The volunteer balloon handlers practice in a stadium months before the parade and need to be able to handle the balloons in gusts of wind.
The balloon inflation starts the night before the parade outside the American Museum of Natural History and is the perfect place for dinosaurs to hatch.
Dinosaur traffic control
These people got their viewing spots at the barricades at 4:30 AM but their energy was undiminished.
The anime character Goku waiting to join the parade
Toward the end of the parade, Christmas-themed floats appear like this one reminding us to buy candy.
Macy’s considers the parade its gift to America.
The New York Marathon was a great success this year, with an exciting women’s finish and a new course record set in the men’s division by Ethiopian Tamirat Tola. Many top American marathoners sat out the race to save themselves for the US Olympic Trials in three months. 50,000 runners from countries all over the world ran the marathon and were welcomed with encouragement, excitement, and love from New Yorkers along the course.
The women’s lead pack heading down Fifth Avenue near the 24 mile mark. Kenyan Hellen Obiri (second in this photo) went on to win in 2:27:23.
Viola Cheptoo (Kenya) pulled ahead of Obiri but finished sixth in the end.
The top American woman was Kellyn Taylor. She led for most of the race but was caught by the lead pack and finished 8th.
Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia cruising to victory with no other runner near him. His time of 2:04:58 set a new course record.
New Yorkers with cowbells cheering the runners on
A runner from the Central Park Track Club is cheered by members of his club inside Central Park on the way to the finish line
Sometimes it hurts
Timing is everything at a water station
He ran the whole marathon with an Israeli flag draped on his back like a cape
Finishers got a medal, an orange poncho, and a bag of snacks at the finish line. Central Park West was a sea of orange as throngs of finishers exited the chutes, and this woman was absorbed in her phone.
Finishers resting on a bench on Central Park West
DeborahShapiroPhotos 