Thanksgiving Day 2021 is here! The national holiday in the US will be celebrated on November 25, Thursday and various events will take place on this special day. The most important and exciting of them is Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Known to be the world's largest parade, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is a three-hour procession that takes place on the day of Thanksgiving in New York City. It begins at 9:00 am and goes on till 12:00 pm (ET) in Manhattan. This year, Macy's will celebrate its 95th Thanksgiving Day Parade, which commonly draws millions of viewers from around the world. 

Last year, the celebrations for Thanksgiving were reduced due to COVID-19 in place and Macy's had to restrict live spectators and the parade took place in a reduced format as compared to its normal population. But this year, the parade is back! Yes, the company has announced that the annual festivities that kick start the holiday season will resume in a bigger way than the previous year. As you are ready to witness Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2021, here's everything you must know about the festive day: its origin, structure, the character balloons that take flight on this event and the live streaming details for this year. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2021: Here's a Look at the Brand New Floats That Will Feature at This Year’s Celebrations! Watch Video.

Origin

The parade began in 1924 when Macy's store employees marched to Macy's Herald Square with huge floats, professional bands and live animals brought from the zoo. The first parade had an audience of over 250,000 people and the parade proved to be a successful event from the very start. That day, the company decided to hold the parade annually to start a different tradition for Thanksgiving in the US. 

Ancient Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (Photo Credits: Getty Images)

The spectators for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade kept on surging year-to-year and by 1939, the first national broadcast of the parade took place. By then, the viewership crossed one million! Though the parade was suspended from 1942 to 1944 due to World War II, it resumed in 1945 with two million spectators in attendance, taking to the streets of NYC in empathetic fashion.

Structure of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

With so many people working behind making the real parade a success, it's known that the event has over 4,500 volunteers working for over 50,00 hours of labour to prepare. The spectacular city site comes to life after the volunteers who are painters, carpenters, animators and other experts work all year to make the event more entertaining and exciting than before. This year, the Macy's Parade team has come up with 28 floats, 30-plus heritage balloons, 15 giant character balloons and a whole host of performances to create magic this year. It is also known that Macy's Day Parade is the single biggest volunteer event in America.

Volunteers at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (Photo Credits: Getty Images)

Balloons at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2021

Baby Yoda or the pop culture's icon Grogu from Mandalorian will take to the streets on Turkey Day as one of the four new balloons that've been added this season. Another will be Pikachu and Eevee to mark the 25th anniversary of Pokemon. Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2021: Baby Yoda, Pikachu, Ronald McDonald Giant Inflatable Balloons Ready to Fly High.

Pikachu Balloon at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (Photo Credits: Getty Images)

The third balloon is a giant Ada Twist from book and Netflix series Ada Twist, The Scientist while the fourth and the most amazing balloon to rise high in the sky is the new version of McDonald's Ronald McDonald. This will be the fifth rendition of Ronald McDonald that was brought into Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1987. Other than that, event favourites Snoopy, Pillsbury Doughboy and SpongeBob SquarePants will take flight for Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2021. 

Live Streaming Details of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2021

Multiple virtual options are available to witness the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2021 on November 25, Thursday. Firstly, NBC and Telemundo will air the parade in its official time zone, that is, from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. NBC will also re-telecast the parade from 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. But, in case you're not able to get these channels for official streaming, check out Hulu Live TV or fuboTV to watch Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 22, 2021 03:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).