In Your Easter Bonnet...

Ok...so this was my original planned article for today...and then, of course, a juicy rumor comes out about Brazil in Epcot...so I was like...I'm gonna talk about both!  :)  (To see more info on the rumored Brazil Pavilion in Epcot, read the previous blog post from today.)

A long, long time ago...back when I was a kid...I LOVED Easter.  (I still do...but not with the same fervor...)  I would love hunting for eggs, love seeing what was in my basket, and I absolutely loved the Walt Disney World Easter Day Parade.

Every Easter, we would record the parade.  To me, this is the parade I most associate with Disney...not the Christmas Parade that's shown on TV every year.  I miss the fact that they don't do this parade anymore.  It was always such a blast to see.  (Matter of fact, one of my best memories comes from this parade as one year, the Mickey Mouse Club danced to Escapade from Janet Jackson and my brother actually would turn the tape on and he'd dance around to it.  It's one of my favorite memories of him!  He'll probably kill me for typing that...good thing he doesn't read the blog!) 

I used to have tapes and tapes of the parade...but alas...back when I was a teenager, and when I thought I was too cool for school, I taped over most of them.  I do have one tape left that I'll pop in this time of year, just to get sentimental.

This parade takes me back to the days when Disney wasn't constantly trying to promote their next big pop star or tie in their next movie franchise.  Instead it was purely about promoting the magic that is the Walt Disney World resort, focusing solely on all the adventures that could be had down there.  Sure, it was still total propaganda...selling you on coming to WDW, but to me, it never felt SO commercial, as it so often does now.

For those who have never seen the parade, it has actually been very hard for me to find clips off of YouTube...apparently most people have taped over their copies of VHS tapes too.  If you've got some still and know how to transfer them, I'd love for you to post them on YouTube!  I long to see this parade once more!

However, I did find a couple of things I wanted to share.  First, this is from the opening of the 1990 Easter Day Parade.  This open gives a good overview of what the parade would traditionally consist of.






OK...so...UM...I FOUND IT!!!!  Here's the Escapade MMC video clip I was talking about.  This just made my day!!!  hahaha!!!!



Finally, while this is a new video, every year, the Azalea Trail Maids were in the Easter Day Parade with this song in the background.  I cannot think about Easter without thinking about both.



I hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane with me and that maybe, just maybe, it will make you remember the Walt Disney World Easter Day Parade.

Do you miss the parade too?  Did you used to watch it live?  Do you wish that they still held it on TV?  Let me know in the comments section!