Taking a look at the history behind Montreal's love of parades

Well, who doesn't love a parade?

Turns out Montreal really, really loves parades.

We've got, of course, the St. Patrick's Day parade,

but that isn't it.

We have a steep tradition of parades in Montreal

and here to dive into all of it with us.

This is our favorite Montreal expert

and tour guide, Tom Seewright Tom.

Thank you so much for joining us.

My pleasure, thank you.

Okay, we'll get to St. Patrick's in a little bit,

but how did parades first become a thing?

And when did Montreal really start marching in the streets?

Because when you think of a parade, it's a very specific

and almost strange thing.

We're just going to decide all of us to march together, you know?

It is kind of crazy if you think about it, right?

In the 1700s, 1800s parades in Montreal were rather common,

but they used to be not so much a party

and let's go have fun.

They used to be mostly like about a religious ceremony

or sometimes even like a showing of military strength.

Yeah.

So the Catholic Church would organize these parades

like on feast days or st. days.

So a lot of French Canadians were part of that

and then the British culture, well, that was more about,

let's bring out our military drummers

and display our imperial power.

So it was kind of a contrast between either

it being religious or military.

That's kind of how it started at first.

Yeah, I just had a flash of a little Portugal.

There's always a procession or a parade

and I forget what a holy day it is,

but I remember the little girls all dressed in white.

They're super cute.

Yeah, beautiful.

That still happens there.

Okay, so let's talk about the city's most famous parade,

which tends to get a little raucous, if you will,

there'll be some debauchery around it.

But before all of that, Montreal St. Patrick's Day Parade

has a tradition and it's an old one.

How old is the St. Patrick's Day Parade?

It's the oldest of all our parades.

Really?

The first one took place in 1824.

So that means the Montreal St. Patrick's Day Parade

is older than Canada itself.

Wow.

I think it's kind of a wild fact.

It predates the Santa Claus Parade, it predates all these,

it even predates the Saint Jean-Baptiste Parade.

We're not interesting.

It's held every year except they didn't

have it a few years ago for COVID reasons.

Yes.

Even but during the wars, like during World War II,

the World War I, they were still having

the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Montreal really did have a large

and very influential Irish population

around the early 19th century, 1900, I'd say.

And the Irish immigrants, they were so important

to the city's development that this parade

became a way for them to assert their Irish identity,

their pride, and they were basically saying

to everyone else in Montreal, hey, look at us,

we belong here, we've helped build this city

and it became like a statement of identity.

And I think that's really important to the Irish community.

And over time, today you go to the St. Patrick's Day Parade

and it's like all these other different communities

and they're like, we're celebrating with our Irish friends.

Yeah, there's all sorts of different floats.

I've been, I've been, I've been,

I've been this for years and years and years, right?

You know, working in media, so we each have our floats,

we're always in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

And younger, you know, you would go and revel,

let's say people would revel.

But there is such a history of parades.

I was marching in parades younger

because the Greeks, different communities,

like Greeks have the 25th of March, our Independence Day,

I always had to march in that one.

So there's a beautiful tradition in communities now.

But there is also the other aspect of it, right?

Which is, we see it in the St. Patrick's Day Parade,

that the sort of entertainment, right?

When did that switch?

Yeah, I'd say that happened around the early 1900s

and believe it or not, that happened

because of who was sponsoring these parades.

Who was trying to get visibility out of it?

So department stores?

Okay.

And newspapers.

Ah.

And so into the book, the example of it

is the Montreal Santa Claus Parade.

You know, in 1925, it was designed to help kick off

the Christmas shopping season and make you want to go downtown

and go to St. Sins or go to Eaton's and shop

and visit Santa Claus.

The radio stations even would broadcast the parades

for, you know, there would be celebrity guests

and themed floats.

And that sort of inspired a new way of seeing the parades

is something very much like fun for everyone.

And then you add on to that from the 70s on up until today,

then they became associated with like visions of change

of society.

Like the one that I think of is the Montreal Parade Parade.

Yeah, that's true.

Very true.

Like you said, the Greek parades or the Italian parades

or the Haitian parades, it parades today.

It's kind of like they mix the politics of the past

with the performance and the party atmosphere

of the present.

So Montreal has dozens of parades every year, almost,

I think more than any other Canadian city.

I think I'm right.

If I say that, I'm not 100% sure.

But I think we have more parades than anywhere else in Canada

and it's a big part of who we are.

Yeah, we are both equal parts of protestee people

and a parade people.

And hopefully those two shall not meet.

Tom Seafright, again, he's the her Montreal expert,

our tour guide, follow him on Instagram as well.

Tom is always such a pleasure.

We'll chat again very soon.

Thank you so much.

Find 20 tens, the decade on the free I heard radio app

pre-setization.

So it's always one tab away.