The event draws important foot traffic for business owners, who told NBC Los Angeles that customers on the day of the parade help boost sales for the entire first week of the year.
This year’s parade theme is “The Magic in Teamwork.” “The theme celebrates the sense of accomplishment in knowing that by working together, we can collectively achieve outcomes so much richer than we can ever experience as individuals,” according to the parade website.
Former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin “Magic” Johnson will serve as the parade’s grand marshal.
What is the Tournament of Roses?
The Tournament of Roses, commonly known as the Rose Parade, began in 1890 as an event put together by an elite social organization for wealthy Pasadena families called the Valley Hunt Club. It’s meant to highlight the area’s mild weather compared with the cold and gray East Coast winters.
Charles Holder, who had moved to Pasadena from Massachusetts, remarked at a club meeting, “In New York, people are buried in snow.”
“Here our flowers are blooming and our oranges are about to bear,” he said, according to the parade’s website. “Let’s hold a festival to tell the world about our paradise.”