Sunday's Easter Promenade and Parade featured all the finery and fun tradition asks, from the promenade's colorful dress, Flemish Giant Rabbits and prize baskets filled with more than $3,250 in gifts donated by community merchants, to the parade's community floats, car clubs and high-stepping carriage horses wearing hats sponsored by community organizations and businesses.

  The festivities have been hosted by the volunteer Easter Festival Committee since 1959.

 Joe Lavallee (left above) emceed the colorful noon promenade while wife Jan delivered prize baskets in an outstanding first year they've organized the festivities at the Plaza's gazebo.

   Giant Flemish Rabbits brought from their rabbitry in Green Cove Springs by Donnie and Lisa Wilson were the hit of the day in both promenade and parade - one person guessed the correct weight of the biggest, 24 pounds.

   Following closely on the day's hit parade was a Jax Beach couple dressed out New Orleans style.

   Said City Commissioner and native son Don Crichlow as the afternoon parade passed in review, "It just wouldn't be the same if it wasn't on Sunday afternoon."

   City officials have tried to move the parade to Saturday morning to ease parking problems. 

Opposite ends of town - sort of - offer opposite sides of epicurean taste this weekend:  EPIC Behavioral Healthcare's 18th annual Merrill Lynch's A Taste of St. Augustine at the amphitheatre and the 1st Annual Bacon Nation Food Festival at Francis Field.

   A Taste of St. Augustine promises "exciting tastes from over 20 of St. Augustine's famous restaurants" Saturday noon to 7 pm, along with a music festival, free children's area and Culinary Marketplace. Tickets $5, food and drink tickets $1. Details on the website.

   Bacon, bacon - along with bounce houses, rock climbing walls, slides, games, face-painting, obstacle courses, a bungee trampoline and more - await kids while parents sample food from more than 20 food trucks at Francis Field.

   "The range of food will encompass all varieties of cuisines" the website promises.

   Adults $4, kids 13 and under free. Kids Zone $7. Saturday and Sunday, noon - 8 pm.

Parada de los Caballos y Coches

1 year, 4 months, 17 days to St. Augustine's 450th anniversary

From the 1982 Easter Festival program:

   During the Easter season many people would just expect that there would be a parade of some type. The word Easter and the word parade seem to go together.

   Here in the Nation's Oldest City we have a parade that is unique to the first colony in America. Saint Augustine has the "La Parada de los Caballos y Coches," The Parade of the Horses and Carriages. 

   When the ladies came out of church that morning in all their Easter finery they stepped into these carriages and rode around the Plaza. From 1954 to 1958 the idea grew little by little. In 1958 the first real parade took place. Carriages were decorated and the horses wore hats donated by the ladies. From there the idea "snowballed." Can you imagine a horse with a cage on his head, or the once fashionable Snood?

   The Parade was born.

   At first just the members of our community viewed this parade but the word has spread. Now residents and visitors alike line the parade route, sometimes three deep, to view the passing spectacle. Estimates at last year's parade put the crowds at over 100,000.

   Many local and state dignitaries will sit on this year's viewing stand. They will hear the music of Jimmy Brooks as he again provides pre-parade entertainment. They will hear Fred Shilling act as master of ceremonies and state that "the parade has started on time as usual." They will see M. K. Murphy leading the parade as our "Parade Marshal." The Royal Entourage section of the Parade will again be narrated by Marie Colee. 

   One of the things that they will not see is the many hours of long work that the Parade Committee has put in. They will not see the long hours of preparation on the floats and on the various costumes.

   Nor will they see Molly. Molly was becoming a tradition; she had participated in every Easter Parade since the beginning. She represented the history, not only of the parade but also of Saint Augustine. 

   This was to have been Molly's twenty-fifth Easter Parade. But a month ago Molly died. She will not don her Easter finery and march in this year's parade, but she will always be remembered because it is "La Parada de los Caballos y Coches."

   Image:Black and white photo of Molly, colored by Georgia Nick of Georgia Nick Gallery

   Primer for the 450th - St. Augustine Bedtime Stories, 24 dramatic accounts of famous people and events. Details here