#parades-and-fireworks

#parades-and-fireworks

The annual Easter Bonnet and Parade Festival is all about the hats-lavishly decorated, from the exquisite to the outlandish. Anyone is welcome to join, just show up near St. Patrick's Cathedral at 10am on Easter Sunday to watch or saunter with the group up Fifth Avenue.

More than 20 people were injured on Saturday after an alleged drunk driver plowed into pedestrians at a Louisiana parade celebrating the Lao New Year.

The New York International Auto Show is packed with kid-friendly activities, including their newly expanded Family Fun Zone featuring hands-on attractions, a Kids EV Test Track, and more.

There's something about the holiday season that makes us all feel like kids again. Maybe it's the crisp air, the smell of pine, or the anticipation of gathering with loved ones. For me, though, it's the lights. Those twinkling, shimmering displays that transform ordinary streets into something magical. Across America, entire towns take this tradition seriously, turning themselves into winter wonderlands that draw visitors from all over the world.

An agreement signed last Friday by the defense ministers of Germany and Ukraine will allow the German military, Bundeswehr, to benefit from the expertise of military instructors from Ukraine. "The plan is to incorporate the experience of Ukrainian soldiers into army training, particularly at the army's troop schools," a Bundeswehr spokesman told the dpa news agency, without providing details. Germany is responding to the significant changes that have occurred on the battlefield in Ukraine since Russia attacked almost four years ago.

BAY RIDGE - FASTELAVN, THE DANISH VERSION OF MARDI GRAS, comes to Bay Ridge on Saturday, Feb. 7. The Scandinavian East Coast Museum sponsors this annual event, held in advance of the penitential season of Lent, which is observed in many Lutheran countries, including in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. Lent begins early this year, on Feb. 18, which will be Ash Wednesday. Bay Ridge carries a rich Scandinavian history dating back to the immigration waves of the mid-19th century and again post-World War II.

A lot has changed since the last time I popped up in your inbox - a little Christmas snow (or close enough) for the first time in a very long time. And we swore in a new mayor in the bowels of an abandoned subway station. (If you didn't get an invite to that ceremony, here's a tip: Stay on the downtown 6 after the last stop, and you'll loop around that gorgeous station.)

A parade float praising Brazil's president Lula strode through Rio's Sambadrome, drawing contreversy and triggering lawsuits. A carnival float in Rio de Janeiro's world-famous carnival parade was the center of a controversy over Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his upcoming bid for reelection. Critics of the president accused him of improperly using the nation's high-profile Carnaval celebrations for political campaigning.