History
Fiesta dates to 1891, when local women decorated carriages, baby buggies and bicycles with live flowers, met in front of the Alamo, and threw the blossoms at one another. That was the first Battle of Flowers Parade. The event was a success and soon became an annual event. Soon other activities joined the flower parade—balls, parties and a carnival. The celebration's name changed over the years from Carnival to Spring Carnival to Fiesta San Jacinto and, in 1960, to Fiesta San Antonio.
The Battle of Flowers Parade Association began crowning a queen in 1895. In 1909 local businessman John Carrington established The Order of the Alamo with the purpose of crowning a queen, a princess and 24 duchesses, 12 from San Antonio and 12 from out of town. Coronations of local "royalty," a carnival and many other activities became the forerunners of today's Fiesta.
Read more about this topic: Fiesta San Antonio
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If you look at the 150 years of modern China’s history since the Opium Wars, then you can’t avoid the conclusion that the last 15 years are the best 15 years in China’s modern history.”
—J. Stapleton Roy (b. 1935)
“Every generation rewrites the past. In easy times history is more or less of an ornamental art, but in times of danger we are driven to the written record by a pressing need to find answers to the riddles of today.... In times of change and danger when there is a quicksand of fear under men’s reasoning, a sense of continuity with generations gone before can stretch like a lifeline across the scary present and get us past that idiot delusion of the exceptional Now that blocks good thinking.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“In the history of the United States, there is no continuity at all. You can cut through it anywhere and nothing on this side of the cut has anything to do with anything on the other side.”
—Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)