The Evening Star (April 22, 1946)
Biggest Easter parade in New York’s history marks world holiday
By the Associated Press
The sounds of warfare gone, millions of Christians in all lands gathered yesterday in their places of worship to rejoice over the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Symbolic Easter services carried special meaning this year to thousands who prayed that this celebration of resurrection might mean also a new life for humanity, freed from the tyranny of war.
In churches, bombed-out cathedrals, on mountain tops and along the sea, worshipers heard the clergy tell again the poignant story of the first Easter.
Throughout this country, millions streamed out of churches after the service into warm sunshine for the traditional Easter parade.
1,000,000 on Fifth Avenue
New York’s Fifth Avenue had the greatest Easter parade of its history, with a many-colored crowd of 1,000,000 fashionable strollers.
Europeans, celebrating their first peacetime Easter since 1939, packed into churches and flocked to resorts for a weekend holiday.
Pope Pius XII remained in seclusion at the Vatican. Many American servicemen attended St. Susanna’s Church.
London had its sunniest Easter in 45 years and special trains took vast crowds to seaside resorts. Most Britons carried their own rations to insure eating over the holiday.
Britain’s royal family attended services at Windsor Castle and celebrated Princess Elizabeth’s 20th birthday. She received her customary annual gift from the king – a single pearl to become part of a necklace.
Uniforms at Notre Dame
American, British and Belgian military uniforms were prominent in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, where Emmanuel Cardinal Suhard celebrated mass.
Many Parisians paraded in homemade finery along the Champs Elysees, but chilly weather reduced their number to below the prewar level.
Throughout the Soviet Union, the devout crowded orthodox churches and church bells were used to toll the holiday for the first time in more than 20 years. In Moscow, the Easter festival was the greatest since the revolution.
Skiers and cyclists took advantage of clear weather in Switzerland. Bern’s 450-year-old Protestant Cathedral was illuminated Saturday and Sunday nights.
Thousands wait in line
Throughout the United States, many thousands stood in line outside churches to await their turn to worship.
Weather was ideal in San Francisco, where 50,000 climbed Mount Davidson overlooking the Pacific for sunrise services.
Some 56,000 worshipped in Forest Lawn, Los Angeles; 35,000 in the Rose Bowl at Pasadena; 30,000 at the Hollywood Bowl and 12,000 at Mount Rudiboux, Riverside. In Chicago, 40,000 attended dawn services at Soldier Field.
The entire Midwest and some sections of Minnesota and Iowa celebrated Easter in temperatures hovering around 70 degrees.
It was the first time since 1943 that Easter fell on the same date in both Eastern and Western churches.