Philadelphia - Event

Dress warmly for the Mummers' Parade, one of the most extravagant events in Philadelphia. Over 10,000 people come out to welcome the New Year in outrageous fashion and thousands more line the route for the city's premier street party.

Taking place on Broad Street, Mummers' Parade features three groups: Comics, Fancies and String Bands. The groups are each judged at the parade's finishing point, Philadelphia's City Hall, for originality, best theme and costume.

Philadelphia's New Year's Day celebrations can be dated back to the gun-toting days of George Washington, who began a tradition of New Year's Day calls for the seven years that he occupied the presidential mansion in the then-capital. Many early parades were accompanied by the musical crack of pistol shot, as paraders "shot in" the New Year, giving birth to the descriptive name, the "New Year Shooters". Even though this is America, active use of firearms in the celebrations is discouraged today.