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NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio Cancels Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio revealed on Monday that he plans to cancel the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade for the first time in nearly a century.

During a press conference, the Mayor said that this year’s Thanksgiving festivities exclude the iconic live parade. Instead, celebrations will be confined to TV and the web.

“It will not be the same parade we are used to,” he said, Daily Mail reports. “It will be a different kind of event. They’re reinventing the event for this moment in history.”

According to de Blasio, this year’s Thanksgiving celebration will look more like this past Fourth of July fireworks. Retail giant Macy’s modified its annual fireworks celebration to protect New Yorkers in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

“You will be able to feel the spirit and the joy of that day on television, online — not a live parade, but something that will really give us that warmth and that great feeling we have on Thanksgiving Day,” de Blasio said.

Bill de Blasio On Moving Forward in the Midst of the Pandemic

Bill de Blasio continued by explaining that the city is not getting back to normalcy until possibly next year. “There are some things we still can’t do,” he said. “We’re looking forward to a lot of them coming back in 2021.”

However, de Blasio explains that he hopes to keep these rich traditions alive in the future. “In this case, it’s really important to keep these traditions continuing,” he said. The Mayor concluded by saying that he wants to ensure that “history is unbroken.”

On the company website, Macy’s addressed the upcoming changes in a statement. “Following our successful, safe and innovative production of Macy’s 4th of July Fireworks®, it is our intention to similarly reimagine Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this November.”

[H/T Daily Mail]