Parades are often a central part of a community celebration, providing an exciting, moving spectacle that people can watch from the sidelines. A famous parade in Britain is called Trooping the Color when royalty is driven around in a carriage to inspect the troops. In the U.S., people have parades for all sorts of holidays, including Thanksgiving, Columbus Day, St. Patrick’s Day, and Memorial Day. They also have parades celebrating cultural events such as Chinese New Year and Mardi Gras. One city in the U.S. is known for its Mardi Gras Festival. Many parades, including Mardi Gras, feature “floats,” which are moving cars of large displays decorated with fresh flowers or crepe paper by local groups and schools. Musical groups march and play their instruments, and military troops also often participate. In the Charro Day Parade (“Charro” is a Mexican cowboy in a special costume), a fiesta parade in Brownsville, Texas, children wear traditional Mexican costumes, march, and sing special songs. Some parades, which used to be mainly religious celebrations, are now put on for everyone. In New York City, the Easter Parade takes place up and down Fifth Avenue. Traditionally, this is when all the women would first wear their Easter bonnets.Another very popular parade in New York is the Thanksgiving Day Parade, which includes floats of everything from a gigantic turkey, to Snoopy to Bart Simpson. New York City is just one of many cities to hold big holiday parades. Small-town parades can also be fun because everyone can participate.