© Seth Wenig/Allposters.com

New York City’s Fifth Avenue and its iconic Easter Parade have been filmed, photographed and written about for well over a century. In 1948, Fred Astaire and Judy Garland immortalized the event in the Academy Award winning musical, Easter Parade. Today, Bill Cunningham fills the pages of the New York Times each year with his glorious snapshots which portray current fashion plates and lively hat mavens.

Originally, the parade was simply a promenade after church service on Easter Sunday. Begun as a spontaneous event in the 1870s, it burgeoned in popularity through the War Years. Walking on the Avenue allowed the hoi-polloi to dress up and point their noses in the air at each other. As participants admired their respective church attire, it soon became a necessity for the wealthy to wear lavish garb and parade their riches.

Donning new finery has been a spring tradition since time immemorial, and is a custom that was fomented by the Tudors as a superstitious harbinger of good luck. As floral displays abounded in the churches that lined Fifth Avenue in celebration of the season, the finery of the social dragons of the Gilded Age gradually became more and more extravagant, reflecting this shift in décor. Milliners revelled in the trade this event created, and dry-goods merchants helped increase sales through advertising and displays. Prepping for the Easter Parade was a major event even when I went to school in the 1950s–new suits, hats, shoes, gloves, bags (along with the treats left by the Easter Bunny, of course) were of primary importance.

In 1933, Irving Berlin penned the music of the song, ‘Easter Parade’, at long last capturing the essence of the day. It birthed the film 15 years later, and today it is the theme song of the season, the parade, and the spirit of Easter on Fifth Avenue.

From its ostentatious beginnings to its waning years in the 1950s, the springtime pageant has lost some of its gilt veneer. Exuberant hat-wearers today endeavor to display an air of chic respectability, harking back to yesteryear. The joy of the day remains intact, however its former glory is oft overshadowed by the costumed theme hats that frequently make their way onto the Avenue.

This year, chic will return to Fifth Avenue en masse as the New York Milliners Guild will join the fray decked in their crème de la crème creations. Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra will be playing their popular 1920s repertoire decked in their Easter duds. So come dressed as you please, revive the Easter Parade magic and breathe in the air of the past and the present.