Hoppy New Yorkers turned out in style for the city’s annual Easter Parade, flooding Fifth Avenue with a deluge of colorful bonnets and wild costumes Sunday.
The 10-block stretch from East 47th to East 57th streets was packed as marchers bedecked in elaborate get-ups made their way past crowds of onlookers, who frequently poured in from the sidelines to take photos with them.
“We stand and take pictures for about four to five hours,” said a Brooklyn man, who appeared to have fashioned a Chinese lantern into an elaborate bear-shaped hat.
“We haven’t made it very far, it took us two hours to get here from down the block,” the reveler said. “We’re doing great, we’re overwhelmed with the response, but we love the happiness that this generates in everyone.”
Nearby was Henrietta Scholtzova, a New York University scientist from Slovakia who was dressed in an elaborate homemade peacock ensemble.
“It took a few weeks to make, but I was collecting feathers for years. And I finally had decided I had enough,” she said.
“I’ve lived in New York for 20 years now, and I’ve been attending the Easter and Halloween parade,” Scholtzova said. “I feel this is more creative than Halloween! I really like it.”
The parade has been a city fixture since the 1870s and draws its roots from the Gilded Age ladies who donned their gaudiest outfits for Easter Sunday strolls down Fifth Avenue to and from church.
Other costumes on display this year included full-body fuzzy Easter bunny suits, hats wider than umbrellas, glittering interpretations of the Statue of Liberty, winged angels and flowery helmets.
Most were homemade and took the wearers hours, days or weeks to assemble.
“It took about 12 hours to make,” said 53-year-old Barry Brown, whose head was stacked with an Alice in Wonderland-themed hat that had fashioned a hookah hose into a caterpillar.
Evelyn Melissen, 55, wore a massive spring-themed hat covered in mushrooms, lace and flowers.
“The hat took me about a week. You know, you have to make the cardboard and the paper maché and the paint and then dry, dry, dry,” she said.
“I live here, I’m one of the weirdos that who come out and dress up for Easter parade every year,”
