This Year’s Parade:

Looking Back, Looking Ahead

The people in many ancient cultures around the world revere and honor their forebears to the extent that those who have gone before are believed to be present, watching over their descendents as they negotiate the complexities of the world. Ancestors are even routinely consulted before important decisions are made. This is not the custom in our culture, but this year we would like to think that Newtown’s forebears will be present and approving at one of the town’s most important rituals: the Labor Day Parade.

We know one of them will be there — in spirit anyway. Mary Hawley is this year’s honorary parade marshal. Give her a rousing cheer when you see her.

The parade kicks off, as usual, at 10 am on Labor Day, Monday, September 5, but that may be one of the few usual things about it. This year, the parade commemorates Newtown’s Tercentennial, and many groups and civic organizations are planning special displays and floats to celebrate the town’s 300th birthday. Well over 100 groups have signed up to march in the parade, and thousands of spectators are expected in the center of town to witness the event. There will be bands, fire trucks, horses, dancers, clowns, and kids in uniforms, kids on bikes, kids walking and running, kids riding on floats, and kids being kids.

The nice thing about Newtown’s Labor Day Parade, this special year and any year, for that matter, is that the whole celebration is so big and extravagant that the only way to fully appreciate it is to surrender to the child’s view of the world, where almost anything offers the possibility of fun. It means looking forward to what comes next — looking forward to the future. It is a view we think our forbears would endorse. With any luck, that is how we all will come away from this loud, colorful, and cacophonous look back at the past.