Columbus Day Parade Chicago 2022; On Monday, the 70th annual Columbus Day event brought out both supporters and opponents of the future of Chicago’s Columbus statues. In Little Italy, where Italian Americans are very proud, Christopher Columbus is looked up to.
Some critics, on the other hand, point out that Columbus was involved in the slavery and killing of Native Americans. They want the holiday to be changed to “Indigenous Peoples Day” and the statues to be taken down from public view for good.
In the 38th Ward, Alderman Nicolas Sposato hopes that a deal can be made with city hall to figure out what will happen to the monuments during this time.
Columbus Day Parade Chicago 2022 returns to Loop
On Monday afternoon, the annual Columbus Day parade took place in downtown Chicago. The area was packed with people. In the name of the greater Chicagoland area, the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans kindly invites all parade participants.
To start the events, a mass was held at the shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii. Next, wreaths were laid in Arrigo Park.
After the rally, a lot of the people who were there joined the 70th annual Columbus Day march, which was led by Ryan Chiaverini and Val Warner of ABC7 Chicago. At 1:00 p.m., the party started with a march in the Loop.
Columbus Day parade will kick off at noon Monday
The parade is set to begin at noon, starting from State Street and Wacker Drive and proceeding south to Van Buren Street. Antonia Bennett, the daughter of the renowned Italian American singer Tony Bennett, has been chosen as the grand marshal for the parade, as announced by The Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, the parade’s organizer. Tony Bennett passed away in July at the age of 96.
Ron Onesti, the group’s president, expressed enthusiasm, stating, “This will be the biggest and best parade we have ever had.” Antonia Bennett will join as the Honorary Grand Marshal, adding excitement to the event. The day’s festivities will kick off at 9 a.m. with a Mass at The Shrine of Our Lady of Pompeii, located at 1224 W. Lexington St. A wreath-laying ceremony honoring Italian American Veterans will follow across the street at Arrigo Park.
A pre-parade rally has been scheduled for the first time, starting at 11:45 a.m. at State and Wacker. The rally will feature speeches from local and visiting dignitaries, enhancing the overall experience for parade attendees. In 2021, the parade returned to downtown after a two-year hiatus, and it has largely regained its pre-pandemic size, according to Pasquale Gianni, president of Avanti, the young professionals organization of the Joint Civic Committee.
Last year’s parade featured a diverse lineup, including traditional participants like the Knights of Columbus and the Italian-American Executives of Transportation, alongside groups such as the Filipino-American Society of South DuPage, the traditional Mexican dance troupe Ballet Folklorico, and the Wat Dhammaram Academy of Thai Classical Music.
What to Know About Chicago’s Columbus Day Parade 2022
The 70th Columbus Day Parade starts Monday afternoon, and people in Chicago are getting ready for it. Authorities are telling people to get ready for traffic jams and street closures during the event.
People will be lining State Street from Wacker Drive to Van Buren and beyond to watch the Parade, which will include floats, bands, and marching groups.
These are things you should know:
The march was supposed to start at noon, but getting ready for it began as early as nine a.m.
Between Kinzie and Wacker Drive on State Street, the Parade starts. It then moves to Upper Wacker Drive between Wabash Avenue and Franklin Street.
After that, the path will go along State Street from Wacker Drive to Van Buren Street and end at the corner of Van Buren and Congress.
Columbus Day parade marks 70th year on march through Chicago
Vincenzo Taibi likes Columbus Day because it’s a time to remember his Italian roots. The person who lived in Norwood Park had fond memories of the downtown Chicago parade from his childhood. Even though there are problems with the holiday’s ties to Christopher Columbus and its effects on Native American groups, 27-year-old Taibi is still focused on the good things.
Taibi thinks Columbus Day is a chance to honor Italian traditions and heritage. He wore a “Hardcore Sicilian” hoodie and walked with his mother, Margie Taibi, near where the Parade would start on Wacker Drive. After being away for two years because of the pandemic, the Parade triumphantly returned to downtown Chicago last year with a size almost the same as before the pandemic.
In his speech, Pasquale Gianni, president of Avanti, a club for young professionals, said that this year marks the 70th anniversary of the Chicago parade. Over 110 groups take part in the festival, which draws people from Chicago, which has the third-largest Italian-American population in the United States.
Notably, more and more groups representing different immigrant ethnic groups are joining the procession. This shows that more people are realizing Columbus’s importance as a leader among the waves of immigrants to the Americas. The Wat Dhammaram Academy of Thai Classical Music, Ballet Folklorico, and the Filipino-American Society of South DuPage were all in this year’s Parade, along with the usual groups like the Knights of Columbus and the Italian-American Executives of Transportation.
Chicago Columbus Day Parade today at 1 PM
October is October, which is also Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. Today at 1 p.m., the 70th Chicago Columbus Day Parade will take place. If you can’t make it in person, you can watch the live broadcast on ABC 7 Chicago. The parade route is on State Street from Wacker Drive to Van Buren Street.
At the same time, a celebration of Chicago Indigenous Peoples Day began today at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Lincoln Square. It will end on October 9 at the Logan Square Auditorium. Native American artists and tribal members will give speeches and hold demonstrations to honor and spread indigenous culture.
What time is the Columbus parade in Chicago?
12 p.m.
Published October 9, 2023 • Updated on October 9, 2023 at 11:30 am. The 71st annual Columbus Day Parade in Chicago steps off Monday at 12 p.m. The parade, sponsored by the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans, includes floats and more, and travels from State Street, to Wacker and Van Buren.
On Monday, to celebrate Columbus Day, Italian Americans in Chicago wore red, white, and green clothes.
An 8 a.m. church service at Our Lady of Pompeii in Little Italy was the start of the Columbus Day celebrations in Chicago. A lot of the people who went to church had been going there for generations.
“In 1966, I was here.” I was fifteen years old and standing with my parents when that statue of Columbus was put in place. “This is my parish,” Theresa Sabatino said.
The city removed the Christopher Columbus statue from nearby Arrigo Park in 2020 and has stored it ever since. However, leaders in the Italian American community are still pushing for its restoration. There has been much talk about the holiday and how it should be celebrated.
Is Columbus Day celebrated in Chicago?
Chicago, Cook County and the state of Illinois all observe Columbus Day, but some are calling for new ways to celebrate Italian heritage.
Columbus Day is still celebrated on the second Monday of October, but in Chicago Public Schools, it is called Indigenous Peoples Day. Some Italians in Chicago celebrate by marching through the downtown area. However, progressive Italians and Indigenous groups want to find other ways to honor Italian heritage that don’t involve Christopher Columbus.
Some people think that honoring Columbus diminishes and questions the history of Indigenous people. Arlene Duncan, the interim executive director of the American Indian Center in Albany Park, is from the Chippewa tribe. She says that celebrating Italian heritage doesn’t have to be limited to one person and that there are other ways to do it.
What is the Columbus Day parade?
The parade has become the world’s largest celebration of Italian-American culture ever since. The parade is held each October on Columbus Day, which is a federal holiday in the U.S. Of many celebrations that mark the discovery of America, the parade in NYC is the biggest and, perhaps most popular.
The first Columbus Day parade was put together by Generoso Pope, an Italian businessman from New York City, on October 12, 1929. The Parade began in East Harlem and ended at Columbus Circle. It celebrated Christopher Columbus’s discoveries and the achievements and contributions of Italian-Americans to New York and the United States. After the march, there was going to be a dinner to raise money for immigrants who were starting over in New York City.
The Parade is now the biggest celebration of Italian-American culture in the world. A lot of different kinds of people go to and watch the New York City parade every year on Columbus Day, which is a federal holiday in the U.S. It has become a big event that brings in politicians, Broadway performers, high school bands, professional groups from the U.S. and Italy, folk dancers, and Italian delegations. With music, costumes, and brightly colored floats, the Parade moves down Fifth Avenue. The event will be shown live on both WNBC and the Italian T.V. station Rai International.
Why is Columbus Day special?
Columbus Day is the U.S. federal holiday commemorating explorer Christopher Columbus’ landing in the New World on October 12, 1492.
People in the United States celebrate Columbus Day for two main reasons. Christopher Columbus, an Italian explorer, set sail for and arrived in the “New World” on October 12, 1492. Since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 1100s, Columbus was the first European to explore the Americas. He landed on a small island in the Bahamas and thought he was in Asia.
The second event happened in 1891 and was one of the worst mass lynchings in American history. Eleven Italian Americans were killed. As a response to this terrible event, President Benjamin Harrison made October 12 Columbus Day in 1892. On the first Columbus Day, people all over the country remembered the lives lost. They celebrated the hope, opportunity, and creativity that Italian Americans have brought to the country since before the republic was formed.
Why is it called Columbus Day?
Columbus Day is a holiday in the United States that commemorates the landing of Christopher Columbus on October 12, 1492, in the New World. Columbus was a native of Genoa, Italy, and over the years Italian Americans took up the cause of honouring his achievement.
Columbus Day is a legal holiday in the U.S. that honors the day that explorer Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, October 12, 1492. Many people believe that Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, so it also honors the cultural history of Italian Americans.
In the United States, Columbus Day has been celebrated every year since 1937. It used to be celebrated on October 12, but it was moved to the second Monday in October so that workers could have a longer weekend.
In 1866, Italian immigrants in New York began celebrating Columbus Day to remember where they came from. The U.S. Census says that over 18 million Americans say they are Italian, making them the fourth-largest ancestry group in the country. This festival starts conversations about the Age of Exploration and what happened after it, especially how native people were mistreated.
Some American communities have chosen to celebrate holidays other than Columbus Day to honor the people who lived in the areas where Columbus landed. Some places in California, like Santa Cruz, Berkeley, and Sebastopol, celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day instead. In South Dakota, the event was changed to Native American Day.
Columbus Day and American Indian Heritage Day happen at the same time. Hawaii marks the day that Polynesian settlers came by calling it “Discovery Day.” The Census Bureau says that there are about 5 million Native Americans and Alaska Natives.
Sunday, the Logan Square Auditorium in Chicago was the site of a two-day festival with Native American artists. The shows will begin on Monday at the Old Town School of Folk Music. These are the 75,000 tribal people who live in Chicago and make up its diverse indigenous community.
In recent years, people have asked that sculptures honoring Christopher Columbus be taken down and that the celebration be given a new name. Some well-known politicians didn’t show up at the Parade on Monday, and some cities have decided not to celebrate Columbus Day.
