Fourth of July Parade
The Canonsburg Fourth of July Parade is a parade through Canonsburg celebrating Independence Day. It is the second-largest Fourth of July parade in Pennsylvania, second only to Philadelphia, despite Canonsburg having only 8,992 residents. 50,000 to 60,000 people usually attend. The parade starts on Morganza Road and runs down the length of Pike Street, heading westward, for approximately 1.5 miles.
The parade begins at 10:00 am on the Fourth of July. Parade members include high school and other marching bands from Washington County and the surrounding areas, local sports teams and cheerleaders of all ages, fire trucks, emergency responders, shriners, unicyclists, jugglers, pipers, polka bands, various church groups, members of the VFW, local politicians, and the mayor of Canonsburg. Some groups throw candy to the children along the parade route, and others pass out water bottles.
After the parade, the day's festivities continue with food, concerts, events in Canonsburg Town Park, and family entertainment throughout the day. The day ends with fireworks launched near Canon-McMillan Memorial Stadium.
The parade is perhaps regionally most famous for the long-standing tradition of enthusiasts placing chairs, benches, and beach chairs along the parade route to reserve their seats, sometimes a week or more ahead of the parade. This has caused controversy among some residents and business owners, but the tradition continues to this day. The seat saving ritual has attracted the attention of CNN, Jay Leno, and David Letterman.
Read more about this topic: Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
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—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: A day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.”
—Frederick Douglass (c.1817–1895)
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—Martha Shelley, U.S. author and social activist. As quoted in Making History, part 3, by Eric Marcus (1992)
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