Mummers Parade Diversifies With New Philadelphia Division
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia's Mummers Parade will get a new division this year. City officials say the "Philadelphia Division" will showcase the city's ethnic and cultural diversity. It was among the New Year's celebration details unveiled at a news conference on Tuesday.
Philadelphia will once again host two New Year's Eve fireworks displays -- at 6 p.m. and again at midnight -- and that the Mummers Parade will start an hour earlier -- at 9 a.m. -- led by the new Philadelphia Division. The Mummers have had a reputation as being, at best, racially exclusionary, but Tom Loomis, president of the String Band Association, says the new division will show the parade's openness.
"The diversity we're bringing into the parade this year is helping expand the diversity we've had for some time," Loomis says. "Welcoming the new groups is a wonderful thing. It's going to bring new fans to the sidewalks and anytime we can spread this great tradition that we have had for 200 years, 115 as a sanctioned parade in Philadelphia, it's a wonderful thing for the Delaware Valley.
The parade will take the same route as last year, marching from City Hall south to Washington Avenue.