If you live in this neighbourhood or visit her often one of the great annual events that brings together the entire Portuguese community to the area is the Portugal Day Parade. It happened this morning and for over two hours groups of patriot Portuguese streamed along Dundas full of national pride, many dressed in traditional clothes. Many of the major Portuguese owned companies sponsored elaborate floats, some of which even included live animals.
Erin Hatfield of the Parkdale Villager wrote a longer history of Toronto’s Portugal Day here, which is well worth reading.
Here’s a few of the highlights but we’ve posted many more in a Facebook page album here:
The Parade Begins:
A couple of older parade watchers:
Osler Fish Warehouse had a creative float with a big fish:
A float celebrating Portugal’s grape growing and wine-making traditions:
There were numerous floats celebrating the Saturnia, a ship that brought many Portuguese immigrants to Canada in May 1953.
Beautiful costumes on many of the participants in the parade:
And more great costumes:
This float had live chickens and sheep! Yes, live!
Of course it was important to celebrate the Portuguese War Veterans:
As mentioned above, check out our Facebook album for more pictures.
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